


How Love Finds Us

by ThunderBoltLoveStory



Series: Our Shifting Hues [1]
Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Alternate Universe, Comedy, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Mystery, Romance, Show Business, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, Threats of Violence, Urban Fantasy, Urban Magic Yogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-03
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-02-27 22:57:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 112,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2709755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThunderBoltLoveStory/pseuds/ThunderBoltLoveStory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternate universe: Kim has just been hired into her dream job; a video editor in a glamorous, famous entertainment company. However, YOGScast isn't exactly what she expected it to be. The big stars are borderline evil (HatFilms), her co-editors are a little quirky (Zoey, Ravs, Teep) and the station's main star (Sips) disappeared years ago. She's also fairly sure that the administration is done using actual magic and that the tech level (William Strife, Ridgedog) shouldn't be overrun by chickens. But she's going to give this place her best shot, and maybe she'll finally get a chance to talk to a certain blond-haired artist (Duncan) who has caught her eye...<br/>[This is an AU fic and is not supposed to represent real-life people.]<br/>COMPLETE</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Bright Eyes Across A Room

The great steel and glass tower loomed up ahead of her, dominating the skyline of Bristol. It was quite intimidating now that she was finally here in the flesh, not just for an interview, but to start her new job. Sure, it was exciting, and she knew she’d kick ass at this job, but Kim had to admit she was also pretty scared. What if something did go wrong? Would they just kick her out if they didn’t like her enough? She’d been aiming for this position for months and she didn’t know what she’d do if they didn’t like her now.

No, calm down, they wouldn’t have hired you if they didn’t think you were the best person for the job, she told herself sternly. She was here as a professional. Everything was going to be fine.

She fixed her straight, dark hair in the reflection of her phone screen before she entered. Inside everything was modern and new, shiny and colourful. Behind the reception desk sat a cheerful man with a huge beard. He didn’t exactly scream ‘business’, but this was a modern enterprise after all. Nobody cared if you looked like a businessman when you worked for the internet. Kim herself was just wearing a t-shirt and hoodie with leggings and a skirt. More like she was going to an event rather than going to work.

“Hello,” the bearded man said, giving her a smile, “Can I help you?”

“Y-Yeah, I’m Kim Richards,” Kim said, stuttering over her words slightly and then internally cursing herself for appearing foolish, “I’m the new video editor?”

“Oh, great!” the man smiled, “If you could just take a seat, someone will be right down.”

Kim nodded, looking around and spotting a series of funky coloured sofas arranged in a pattern by the wall. She sat down on a curving green chair and set her backpack down at her Converse-clad feet. Everything was going to be fine.

After a moment or two, the glossy lift doors opened and a second man stepped out. He was of medium height, with a pencil-thin goatee, slightly spiked hair and a huge grin on his face. Kim remembered him clearly as the man who had interviewed her for the job last month. He bounded over to Kim, already seemingly in mid-conversation.

“... and there she is, our new video editor! Kim, Kim, how’re you doing?”

He gripped her hand and took it vigorously. Kim barely had time to sling her backpack on her back before he was walking back in the other direction. She scrambled to follow him and keep up on her shorter legs.

“You’ll remember me, I’m Mark Turpin, Turps for short, but now you’re working here you can call me The T, or Turpster, or just Turps is fine, whatever you like,” he said, “So, let me give you the tour, okay? This is reception, you probably worked that one out for yourself, and that’s Tom - hi Tom! - there’s a lot of Toms, but you’ll get used to that.”

The lift dinged as the doors opened and Kim followed him inside. He might have stopped walking so quickly, but she was still finding it hard to keep up, this time with his conversation. Turps didn’t seem to stop talking, even to take a breath, and he spoke very quickly. Despite that, he gave off the impression of being warm and friendly. He kind of reminded her of a ‘dad’... not necessarily her own dad, but he was very much a ‘dad’ type figure, even though he probably wasn’t a lot older than she was.

The lift whirred, shooting them high up the building. From the panel of the elevator, Kim could see that there were thirteen floors in total and they were headed to level 9.

“Levels 10, 11, 12 and 13 are for what we like to call, ‘The Talent’,” Turps said, gesturing to the panel, “You’ll never be up there, so don’t worry about it. Level 9 is the Main Studio.”

Right on cue, they arrived at Level 9 and the doors opened to a huge expansive floor. It was filled with camera equipment and different sets. One of them appeared to be a huge green screen, where there was currently activity. Staff buzzed around checking monitors and adjusting lights, but her eye was immediately drawn to a short, slim man with an equally thin moustache, dressed in an oversized fur coat and carrying a cardboard coffee cup. The lights were all being focused on him and he didn’t seem to be happy about how long everything was taking to be set up.

“Can’t you idiots go any faster?” he snapped.

“Trott, Trott, what’s the matter?” Turps said, his voice taking on a slightly wheedling tone as he rushed off. Kim was trying not to laugh, because in person he looked ridiculous, but even she recognised Chris Trott, one of the station’s biggest names. Trott looked at Turps with an expression of pure annoyance.

“Can’t you hire anyone with any skill?” Trott complained, “Even my goddamn coffee is cold!” He hurled it to the floor at the feet of a terrified looking young woman, “Get out, you’re fired!” The woman scuttled out in tears, past an astonished Kim and into the elevator. What kind of company was she working for here?

“Come on Trott, I’ll get her back, I’ll make sure she’s doing her job properly…”

“Urgh, I want Chastity back, she was useless but at least she wasn’t ugly…”

Turps followed Trott back into another corner of the set and Kim couldn’t hear them anymore. It seemed like ‘The Talent’ were… well, they were something else. Were they all like this? Kim couldn’t stand him already. You’re just an editor, you won’t have to work with him, she reminded herself.

The studio itself was amazing though. The lighting crew seemed to have abandoned their work now that their star had wandered off, so they set about their other work. A score of men pushed props, wheeled lights and packed up camera equipment. In the corner, a man was sawing down the side of a painted plyboard background. Kim loved the business and the bustle. This was what it was like to be in a nationally acclaimed production studio.

Turps appeared back at her side, seemingly from nowhere. “It’s quite something, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” said Kim, “Err, Chris Trott there… is he… is he okay?”

“Oh, oh yeah,” Turps nodded, looking a little sheepish, “Just a bad day, I guess. Well, it’s fine, dealing with the talent isn’t your job anyway. Let’s go down to Studio 1.”

They stepped into the lift and went down two floors. Level seven opened up into a wide corridor, with a series of rooms to the right and a wide set of double doors on the left emblazoned with “Studio 1”.

“This is Studio 1,” Turps said, unnecessarily, as he pushed open the door. Inside was a much smaller version of the upstairs studio, with just enough room for two sets and equipment. “And through there is the Recording Room. That’s our main audio recording studio.” He indicated a door on the other side of Studio 1. “That’s how we designate the different areas. The main studio is upstairs, this is Studio 1, Studio 2 is a floor down and that is the Recording Room. You’ll want to remember that.” He closed the doors again and indicated the rest of the corridor, “And this is all studio storage. You can wander around here at your own convenience. It’s all quiiite interesting.”

“Okay,” Kim nodded, still not sure what to make of this whole place, “What’s upstairs, between here and the Main Studio.”

“Oh, that’s my office, and Hannah and the smaller stars,” Turps replied absentmindedly as they got back into the lift, “You can come see me if you have any major issues, but hopefully you won’t have any of that. And now…” The doors opened again into an almost identical corridor, but now they were on level eight. “There is Studio 2,” he said, pointing at a pair of double doors on which a large red light was flashing, “The same as upstairs really. They’re recording in there, so we need to be quiet.” He dropped his voice to a dramatic whisper, as if to emphasise his point. “The rest of this floor is dedicated to the artists and writers.”

“Oh, right!” said Kim, a little more enthusiastically, although not so loudly as to carry into the studio. As they stood there, a tall man wearing a beanie and glasses emerged from one of the rooms down the corridor.

“Ah, Tom! Tom, this is Kim, Kim, this is Tom.”

“Oh, hi Tom.”

“I’m Tom Clark,” he said, in a languid voice, “Not to be confused with the other Tom Clarke.”

Kim wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic or not, but Turps didn’t seem to find anything out of the ordinary, barking out a laugh that he quickly cut off when he remembered the recording down the corridor. “Kim is our new video editor,” Turps added helpfully.

“Ah, a video editor. I started out as a video editor before I escaped that hive of scum and villainy,” Tom said, in that same tone that edged on sarcastic, “I’m currently working on corrupting the writing department.”

“Tom is our best writer, great guy,” Turps beamed, “We won’t keep you, Tom, come on and I’ll introduce you to our artists too.”

Tom nodded and walked on. “Nice to meet you, Tom,” Kim said hopefully. She wasn’t entirely sure if he had liked her or not.

Turps knocked quickly on a door further down the corridor and then ushered Kim into a large office containing three different people, who looked up in surprise. They had that slightly perturbed look that Kim had come to associate with artists who had been disturbed in their work by an intrusion from the strange outside world beyond their graphic tablet. There was three men, two blond, one tall with longer hair, glasses and a goatee on his rounded face, the other soft-faced and spikey haired. The third man had chocolate brown hair and a slightly angular face. The other occupant was a willowy woman with long, dark hair. “Kim, this is Duncan Jones, our original artist from when we were just a small company, and Harry, he’s been around forever too,” Turps said, indicating the longer-haired man, then the brunette, “This lovely lady is Nina Serena, and this is Teutron, our newest addition. They are our Grade A artistic team. Guys, this is Kim, our latest video editor.”

They all said hello, with Duncan drawing out his ‘Hiiiii Kiiiiim’ like a young kid greeting a new teacher. His glasses were very slightly askew and Kim had to resist the urge to fix them for him. “Hi guys, nice to meet ya,” she said instead with a smile. Then Turps had whisked her out and onto their next destination, leaving a floating, “Keep up the good work!” in their wake.

“I won’t show you the lower floors now,” Turps said as they got back to the lift again, “But you are free to explore them in your own time. Level 1 and level 2 won’t be of much interest to you, it’s just the reception and then level 2 is the server level, so you won’t be able to get in there anyway. It’s only our tech guys that had access to that. And level 3 is the business centre, so you won’t be there much, but you can have a look around if you’re interested. But make sure you go say hello on level four when you get the chance, because that’s where our admins and techies live. If you find Minty, she’ll show you around.” The lift dinged again, and they got out for the last time on level 5.

“But this is where you’ll live,” Turps smiled, “Level 5, Researchers, Editors and the Lower Staffroom. Nice and convenient for you. Come on, I’ll show you where everything is.” He turned to the left, where the studio space had been on the higher floors. Instead of a small studio, on this floor it had been turned into a large staff room, complete with a small kitchen and plenty of seating. One side of the room had been decked out with tables and high-powered computers. Shelving units held various pieces of nerdy memorabilia and there was a selection of tabletop games packed away. The had the same kind of funky coloured decoration and comfy sofas that were down in the reception. Overall, it definitely looked like the kind of place where Kim could settle in. It was empty at the moment, probably because it was that period of late-morning where people were actually trying to get some work done after their mid-morning break, but before lunch.

“You probably won’t see many of the tech guys up here, they tend to stick to themselves,” Turps said, “They insisted on having their own staff room down on the server level so that they can keep working on problems without having to come up here for a cup of tea. But the writers, researchers, editors, artists, admins… they’ll all be here at some point during the day. Sometimes some of our performers eat down here too, if they don’t want to deal with the Talent...” Turps coughed awkwardly and Kim got the message just fine. ‘The Talent’ was apparently so hard to deal with sometimes that the smaller names just got fed up with them. Kim was suddenly really glad that she was here to edit video, not to direct or act as an assistant.

“Cool,” was all she said externally. Turps seemed like the kind of guy who tried to like everyone, and was eager to be liked in return, so she decided not to say anything that could be conceived as negative.

“Yeah, so it’s a great space, isn’t it?” Turps asked, more enthusiastically, not waiting for a reply before continuing, “We know a great staff means giving them some great perks. So come on, I’ll introduce you to the researchers before I show you where you’ll be working.”

The research lab was a small room with just two researchers inside, a handsome man with a brown beard and a beanie hat, the other was slightly shorter and heavier, with shaggy black hair and slight stubble. Both wore glasses.

“Kim, our researchers,” Turps said, “Guys, this is Kim, our new video editor.”

“Hello!” said the man in the beanie hat, “Nice to meet you. I’m Sjin and this is Nilesy, but everybody calls him the Potions Master.”

“Oh, why’s that?” she asked, confused.

“Ah, the oldest of jokes, good one,” Nilesy said sarcastically, in a warm Scottish voice. “Hi Kim, just call me Nilesy and we’ll be best buds, okay?”

“Sure!” Kim said, with a relieved smile. They both sounded warm and genuine, even if they were jokers.

“Nilesy’s our resident bookworm, he gets us all the info we need for our writers. Sjin has been here for a long time - he researches and designs a lot of our sets and props before handing them off to our artists,” Turps explained, “Thanks guys!” he added, before rushing Kim on again.

Finally he came to the end of the corridor. This door was helpfully labeled ‘Editors’, so Kim knew this had to be her own workplace. Turps entered the room ahead of her and showed her to the empty desk opposite the door. “And this is you!” Turps announced cheerfully, pointing her to the empty desk. It was set up with a comfortable desk chair and a big, powerful computer. The room was quite big and there were several other editors peeking around their screens to have a look at their new colleague.

“Everyone, this is Kim Richards, our newest editor. I’ll let you all introduce yourselves.” Having shown Kim around the building and now to her office, Turps’ job was apparently done. He shook Kim by the hand again, “I’m sure you’ll love it here Kim, if there’s any problem at all, just come and see me. We’re happy to have you here at YogTowers.” And just like that he was off, rushing out the room to whatever important business he had next. Kim wasn’t sure she’d taken in everything that Turps had thrown at her in his whirlwind tour, but she appreciated the effort he had put in. A lot of other managers would have just told her the room number and left her to it.

“Hi guys, I’m Kim,” she said to the remaining editors, hoping to break the ice before anything got too awkward.

One of the editors got to his feet, a slim blond man. Everyone in this entire office seemed to be blond apparently, but maybe she was just noticing it more because she’d just got back from a visit to her family in Malaysia. But still, it definitely seemed like an above-average percentage for England. “Hi, I’m Colin,” he introduced himself, “I sort of oversee the editing, I suppose you could say. And this is Ravs, Teep and Zoey.”

“Hello,” said Ravs, speaking in a broad Scottish accent. He was stout and round-faced with dark hair and freckles. The guy called Teep smiled, but didn’t say anything, and started signing to the tall, slim girl with shoulder length light brown hair and chunky glasses.

“This is Teep,” the girl said quietly, with a shy smile, who was still signing to Teep with her hands, “He’s mute, but he said welcome to the office. And I’m Zoey. I hope you really like it here. I do.”

“We use messenger with Teep,” Colin explained, “It’s usually faster, especially if Zoey isn’t around. Do you want to settle in and I’ll show you how everything works?”

Kim almost breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe it wasn’t the most typical office in the world, but it seemed like the other editors were nice, certainly on the surface. Hopefully it was going to be okay.

Over the next couple of hours, she settled in to her desk, arranging a few bits and pieces that she had brought in with her to decorate her work area. Colin explained how their editing schedule worked and a few general things she ought to know about working in the office, but for the most part there wasn’t a lot to explain. Kim was already proficient with all the software and she knew what she was doing. Soon she was ready to get started on some real work, but by then Ravs had stood up, stretched and announced it was time for lunch. The others seemed to agree, getting to their feet. Deciding it would probably be best to stick with them, Kim got up and followed them along to the staff room. She’d brought some instant noodles for lunch, since she hadn’t known what kind of facilities there would be before she had arrived, and she’d figured even the most basic staff room would have a kettle.

In fact there was actually a proper cooker and all the necessary implements to make just about anything, but the others had only brought sandwiches and the like as well. Kim flicked on the kettle and waited for it to boil. The staff room was no longer empty as it had been a short time ago when she had been here with Turps. Nilesy the researcher sat at one of the tables, next to a stocky girl with tightly curled dark hair and freckles, who wore a white vest and a camo jacket with rainbow wristbands. The girl waved at them when they walked in, and Kim noticed Zoey turn slightly red. Teep signed something to her which made her blush even deeper. Zoey turned away and opened the fridge to hide her embarrassment, while Teep grinned and waved at the rainbow girl. Ravs took a seat at the table with her and Nilesy, while Colin starting getting his own lunch out of the fridge after Zoey.

The kettle whistled slightly and Kim filled up her noodles, then went to join the group sitting at the table.

“Hi, Kim, wasn’t it?” Nilesy asked her as she sat down.

“Yeah, hi again,” she smiled, trying her best to be friendly on her first day. “Nice to meet you…?” she directed at the girl she hadn’t met previously.

“Fiona,” the girl supplied, extending a hand, which Kim shook briefly, “I’m a caterer to the big bads upstairs.”

“Aw, man, they get catering?” Kim said, looking at her own instant noodles which looked a little sad in comparison to the idea of a properly cooked meal.

“Trust me, the guys upstairs get everything,” Ravs added, “But that’s what you get when you bring in the big bucks.”

Colin, Zoey and Teep joined them at the lunch table. “Hi Nilesy! H-Hi Fiona,” Zoey said, looking somewhere above the other girl’s head.

They ate their lunch and chatted about various things. Kim was happy to find that things weren’t awkward at all, even though she was new and didn’t really know any of these guys yet. She was about halfway through her noodles when another guy walked in that she hadn’t met. He was built like a bull, stout and strong, and he had a purple scarf wrapped around the bottom half of his face. He looked quite intimidating, but when he looked around to their table, his eyes lit up in a way that let her know he was smiling, despite not being able to see his mouth.

“Hey Rythian,” said Nilesy.

“No, no,” Ravs joked, “You can’t talk to him now, he’s talent now. Out of our league.”

“Ha, ha,” Rythian said sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he sat down at the table with his lunch, “Lesser talent, I’m not The Talent and I never will be, you know that.” He didn’t seem bitter about that though, he said it almost in relief, as if that’s the last thing he’d want to be. His accent revealed that he wasn’t from the UK like the rest of them, but from somewhere in Europe. Scandinavia, it sounded like, Sweden or Norway, but Kim wasn’t familiar enough with the accent to know which it was.

“Teep says you shouldn’t have wowed them with your sultry tones,” Zoey said, a tight smile showing that she was trying not to laugh.

“Piss off, Teep,” Rythian said, but his tone was still light, “Okay, you guys done now? Do I get to eat lunch now?”

“Yeah, sure,” Ravs said, a smirk playing on his lips.

“This is Kim, she’s got your old job,” Colin informed Rythian. Then he explained the situation to Kim, “Rythian was an editor, but he made a few things that the higher-ups liked, so he’s a performer now.”

“Turps kept talking about The Talent. I thought that was the performers, but you said you’re not talent? What’s the difference then?” Kim asked.

“Ah,” Nilesy said, thinking of how to properly explain it. “Well, you get the regular performers, right? So Rythian, and you’ve got Martyn, Sparkles and his band… Sjin actually works there sometimes, but he’s still officially a researcher until they can find someone else… Then you have the sort of in-between people, like Strippin and his girlfriend. They’re presenters, but they are still pretty reasonable, they treat people just fine. But The Talent really refers to those three that just fuck over everybody. They’re terrible to work with, but they bring in so much cash that everyone has to put up with them.”

“Trott, Ross and Smith,” Colin added conspiratorially, as if he was worried they would overhear somehow.

“And Sips,” Rythian added, “Sips was the original Talent. But he wasn’t like those three at all, he was.... he was the best guy. Nobody has seen Sips for years.”

“For years?” Kim questioned.

“He disappeared one day,” Fiona added, in a far-off tone as if she was telling a ghost story or a myth, “I saw him just a day or two before he went and everything seemed fine. He was a legend. But then… he was gone.”

“Everyone was worried, but it was never explained,” Zoey said.

“We think the higher-ups know what happened,” Ravs shrugged, “Or at least we think they do. But we’re just editors and such, so they don’t tell us. Even Nilesy couldn’t find out and he’s the master at finding things out.”

“There’s a reason I’m a researcher,” Nilesy added immodestly.

How strange. Apparently there was more than the normal office politics going on. They sat in silence for a few seconds and they all jumped slightly when the door opened, but it was only Sjin and the artists, Duncan, Teutron, Nina and Harry. Kim looked up when they walked in and she made eye contact with Duncan for a brief moment before they both looked away.

Colin checked his watch and shook his head, “Christ, it’s almost two. The videos need to be ready for five! Come on, let’s go. See you later, guys.”

The editors reluctantly dragged themselves to their feet and filed back out to work, leaving Rythian, Nilesy and Fiona sitting at their table.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a whirl as Kim pushed herself to finish her video on time. It was a bit of a challenge since it was a few months since she’d last edited, but she sent it on to Colin at ten to five. At five on the dot, he told them that all the videos had been sent on to the admins. With all their work finished, they were free to leave. Ravs and Teep were out the door in about a minute flat, while Colin seemed like he was going to stay a little longer to wrap things up, so Kim decided to leave with Zoey.

“Your first video will be up tomorrow night,” Zoey told her as they made their way to the lift, “I guess that makes you a real Yog now, huh?”

“I guess so,” Kim smiled, feeling quite proud of herself, “Thanks Zoey. You guys are all really nice.”

“Oh? I just like to make people happy,” Zoey said, with a smile so innocent that Kim was suddenly convinced that it could bring about world peace if only someone would make Zoey president.

“Well, you’re doing a good job on me,” Kim grinned, hitching up her backpack as they walked through reception.

They parted ways at the main doors. Kim’s little car was waiting for her where she’d parked it that morning. When she got inside, she sighed and relaxed. Even though almost everyone she had met had been friendly, it was still stressful starting a new job. She closed her eyes for a minute before she turned on the engine and forced herself to stay awake enough to drive home.

 


	2. The Mysteries of YogTowers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just as she's started to feel like she's settling in at Yogtowers, Kim notices odd occurrences around the office. She visits the Admin Level and discovers the Multilevel Filing System, discovers what 'the chicken issue' is on the server level, and falls over a certain blonde dreamer... literally.

The next morning, she turned up at YogTowers nice and early to get started on her work for the day. She was eager to prove herself and build up a good reputation while she had the chance. Her father had told her a long time ago, ‘it’s easier to maintain a good reputation than build up a broken one’ and she’d found that advice had always done well for her in the past. Only Colin was there already. Hadn’t he stayed late last night as well? Did he ever go home? Presumably, but she couldn’t know for sure. Putting in all these hours was doubtless the reason that he was the head editor with the fancy desk.

“Hi Kim,” he said as she entered, glancing up from his work. “Here, let me show you what you’re going to be doing today.”

He stood up from his chair and followed her to her desk, where he pointed out a few key folders. She was to take over the Thursday accounts, including the Children’s Hour with Martyn. It was a medium sized project, short and easy to edit, and not as important as the main show, but still more relevant than the newest additions to the station. A young man with a carefree face, short blond hair and a green t-shirt smiled back at her from every video thumbnail.

“I think this’ll be the easiest one for you to start off with,” Colin said, “Martyn’s a pro, so there’s not usually a lot to be edited out. I’ll be checking over everything before it gets sent on anyway, until you’re fully settled in.”

“Right, got it,” Kim nodded.

“Your video yesterday was good,” Colin told her, “If you can build on that, you’ll be a important member of the team in no time.”

Kim gave him a big smile at that and Colin went back off to his own work. At least her immediate boss was happy with her, which was always a good sign. There was nothing worse than having an annoying, nit-picky boss on your case the full time, especially when you were working in the same office space. She was getting the feeling that Colin was a lot more serious than the other editors, but that probably came naturally with the responsibility of being in charge. Kim felt that as long as she kept her standards up, she’d be doing just fine.

Teep arrived shortly before their normal working hours, giving Kim a shy smile and a tiny wave as he walked past her, which she returned. Zoey shuffled in about five minutes later, stifling a huge yawn, her usual brightness somewhat dimmed and holding a mug of coffee as if her life depended on it. Not a morning person, apparently. Ravs turned up right as the clock hit the hour, stumbling through the door in a hurry and rushing over to his computer to clock in before he was officially late. The office was quiet: Colin was busy with work, Zoey apparently didn’t speak before she woke up, Teep couldn’t say anything if he wanted to, and Ravs was fidgeting at his desk, perhaps used to being in a silent office for the first hour of the day. Kim didn’t really mind, she had one earbud in and music playing through it while she worked. Unlike Zoey, mornings was when she got working, because by the late afternoon her concentration was usually gone. She’d much rather come in early than stay late.

Her messenger on her computer gave a small bleep, distracting her from her work. Kim quickly muted it to prevent annoying anyone else and looked at the message she had been sent.

 **Tee:** Hello Kim

Kim looked up curiously. Teep wasn’t looking at her, just focused on his computer screen and giving no indication that he’d just send her a message. Kim shrugged and wrote back.

 **Nanosounds:** Hi there Teep!

 **Tee:** I haven’t been able to speak to you yet. Is everything ok with you? Do you know what’s going on?

 **Nanosounds:** Yeah, I think so. Thanks, mate!

 **Tee:** Good. Have you been to see the admins yet?

The admins? Turps had actually mentioned that she ought to investigate the lower levels when she had the chance, but she’d been too busy yesterday to go. Why was Teep asking her now?

 **Nanosounds:** No, I haven’t.

There was a pause, although the little icon showed that Teep was typing. She could hear him typing at his desk. He wrote what seemed like a long message, then paused. After a few seconds’ delay, he hit the backspace repeatedly, then typed out a much shorter message.

 **Tee:** We will go at lunch, you and I.

That wasn’t really a question, more a statement. Kim almost said no just to reject being told what to do, but she decided to trust him. After all, it was just some administration staff, how bad could it be?

 **Nanosounds:** Sure thing bud.

 **Tee:** Cool, see you then.

Kim was very curious, but she just had to wait until the hours ticked down. She had plenty of work to do in the meantime to distract her. Zoey seemed to flare back up to her usual incandescent self after she had finished her mug of coffee. By late morning, she was just as fidgety as Ravs, who stood up and stretched just before noon.

“Right,” he said, “That’s enough of that. Lunch time.”

“Sure,” Zoey said, also bouncing to her feet. She started signing at Teep and looked surprised when he shook his head and replied to her.

“Okay,” she shrugged finally. “Are you coming Colin?” she asked. Colin seemed in two minds about it, but then nodded and followed Zoey and Ravs out of the room. Kim looked over to Teep, who gave her a smile, then jerked his head in the direction of the door.

“Sure, let’s go,” Kim said. She didn’t really know what was going on. That wasn’t totally uncommon for a new job, but this whole place was quite a bit stranger than anywhere she’d ever worked before.

Teep got to his feet and she followed him to the elevator, where they descended a floor to Level Four. The lift dinged and they stepped out into a corridor much the same as the one on the floor above. Nothing seemed particularly out of place. When she turned the corner, there was a shiny black reception desk stretching across the hall in front of the room that upstairs was her own editing room, but on this level was the Administration Office. A slim blonde woman sat, typing at speed into a computer just behind the desk. She wore a patterned green and beige dress with shiny green shoes and a lot of low-key jewellry. She didn’t look up when they approached, so Teep rang the bell sitting on her desk. The woman looked up and gave a warm smile when she saw who was standing in front of her.

“Ah, Teep, hello!” she said confidently, saying the words out loud but signing at the same time. Apparently Zoey wasn’t the only person in the office who didn’t depend on a messenger service to speak with Teep directly.

“And you must be our new hire,” the lady continued, smiling at Kim too.

“Er, yes, I’m Kim, I’m the new video editor,” Kim said, giving an awkward little wave.

“Of course, Kim, I was only just filling in your paperwork the other day,” the admin said, shaking her head slightly, “I’m Anya, but you can just call me Minty, everyone else does.”

“Hi Minty,” Kim said, “Teep here invited me down here, I suppose you could say.”

“Ah, Teep does like to make sure everyone he works with is happy.”

Minty never stopped signing the entire time she was talking, so Kim had to assume she was repeating their spoken conversation for Teep’s benefit. Certainly he looked as if he understood everything that was being said and his eyes flickered between the women’s faces and Minty’s hands. He began signing back to Minty.

“Teep says he’s just being friendly,” Minty explained, “Which is true, I suppose. Come on through, I may as well introduce you.”

She opened the top of the desk, allowing them to walk through into the greater admin area. The bearded man who had been on reception the previous day was there, as was a man with fair hair and glasses. “This is Tom,” Minty said, pointing to the man with the glorious beard, “And Adam,” she said, indicating the other man. “Tom, Adam, this is Kim, the new editor.”

“Oh yeah, I saw her yesterday,” said Tom, swivelling around in his chair, “Welcome to the team.”

“Nice to meet you,” nodded Adam.

“Yeah, thanks guys, nice to meet you too,” Kim said. She looked around to Teep with a questioning look on her face. Nice as it was to get to know more people in the building, she wasn’t quite sure why he’d been so eager for her to come. He held his hand partially out towards her, his palm facing her. She might not know sign-language, but the meaning of this gesture was clear: wait.

Not more than a few seconds had passed, before things became clear. Tom turned back to his computer and, without even looking, raised one hand and pulled a plastic tube out of thin air. Kim wasn’t even sure what she had seen. One minute there had been nothing and the next he was holding a tube. He nonchalantly unscrewed the cap and pulled out a few papers, before inserting the tube back into nothingness where it disappeared.

“Wha-?” asked Kim in a high-pitched tone of shock.

“What is it?” Minty asked in concern, having been distracted from the event by conversing silently with Teep.

“I- Did I just-?” Kim began, but then Teep took her under the arm and guided her out of the office, waving cheerily at Minty behind them. Kim didn’t speak again until they were safely back in the lift.

“I’m not crazy!” she told him, “I saw that. I _saw_ that just happen. What was that? Magic? Because it looked an awful lot like magic. Do you understand me?”

Teep nodded, held up his hand again in that same ‘wait’ gesture, then got out his phone and started to type quickly. When he was finished, he handed the phone back to Kim.

‘I can read your lips quite accurately. What you saw is true. This place is very strange. I do not yet understand why.’

Kim looked up, still recovering from the shock of having her logic so thoroughly shaken. “That’s not normal. Can everyone do that? Just take things out of nothing?”

Teep retrieved his phone from her hand and then began furiously typing again.

‘They call that the Multi-level Filing System. I do not understand how it works. Everyone seems to treat these things as if they are normal, but they are not.’

No, they certainly were not normal. Kim had only just recovered from feeling as if she was about to have a heart attack. “It must be technology,” she said stubbornly, “Some kind of incredible technology I’m just not familiar with. Right? Magic doesn’t exist, not in real life.”

Teep shrugged, seemingly unconcerned with what Kim did or didn’t believe. The lift had returned to Level Five, so Teep pointed towards the staff room, then made an eating motion.

“You go ahead,” Kim said, shaking her head, “I’ll catch up in a minute.”

They separated, Kim going towards the editor’s room, while Teep headed off to join the others eating their lunch in the staff room. She was going to need a moment to process this. This place was weird, that much had been hinted at before, especially at yesterday’s lunch, but she wasn’t prepared for this kind of craziness.

She sat down at her desk. Really ought to just go back to editing her video, that was normal and would take her mind off of physical impossibilities, but her stomach was growling already. If she waited to go for lunch after all her co-workers had already eaten, that would probably be seen as anti-social.

Kim had just made up her mind to get over it and go join the others at lunch, when there was a light tap on the door.

“Hello?” she asked, looking up from her screen.

“Ah, hello?” asked a slightly familiar voice. It took her a moment to place it, but she recognised the speaker as soon as he stuck his slightly messy mop of blond hair around the door.

“Oh, you’re one of the artists, right?” she asked him. Unfortunately she couldn’t actually remember his name, but hopefully that wouldn’t be a problem.

“Yeah, and you're the new girl,” he added. “Kim. I remember.” For a second, they just were still, looking at each other, as if they’d forgotten what to say.

“Was there something you needed?” Kim prompted finally.

“Oh, right, yeah. I was just looking for Colin, we wanted him to come look at some designs up in our office…”

Again he trailed off and they just looked at each other, but even though it should have been horrifically awkward, it wasn’t, in a weird way.

“Is he in the staff room?” he asked, after a few heartbeats.

“Yeah. Yeah, he should be.”

“Cool,” the artist brushed his hair out of his eyes a little, suddenly all business again, “Well, if you see him before I do, tell him Duncan was looking for him, yeah?”

“Sure thing,” Kim affirmed. And that was it. He left the room and for a full minute, Kim just stared into space after him. That was… weird… But then, everything was weird here, this was just another thing for the list. The encounter had probably just been strange because she’d been thrown by whatever the heck she’d just witnessed downstairs, that was all. So his name was Duncan…

For the next few days, work continued as normal. Kim wanted to ask Teep about the anomaly she had witnessed on the admin level, but he seemed to become suddenly very busy, and she was afraid to ask anyone else in case they thought she had gone bonkers. Despite the weirdness, she had to admit that she found herself becoming quite used to life working in Yogtowers. Deadlines were tight, but never so tight that she found herself stressing out. She was busy, but things flowed very smoothly and there was always time for a nice long lunch break in the staffroom. All in all, things seemed to be working out quite satisfactorily.

They had just come back from lunch on Thursday when the network went down. After several minutes of tampering with files, Ravs threw up his hands in frustration and sat back in his chair with his feet up on the desk. “I’m done. It’s broken.” Colin insisted on trying to fix things for a couple more minutes, but finally he admitted defeat. By this point Ravs and Teep had broken out the Lever Game, so he turned to Kim.

“Kim, can you run down to the server level?” Colin asked her, “Try and find out what’s going on?”

“Eh, sure thing,” she nodded, watching in interest as Ravs and Teep repeatedly hit a lever on a desk. Zoey seemed to be keeping score somehow, but not in any kind of system that Kim could figure out. After a moment she shook her head and headed off to the lift.

The server level was level two, under the business centre on level three. Kim wasn’t sure what to expect - a bunch of computers, presumably - but she didn’t expect to step out of the elevator and into a small, white anti-chamber with a large steel door and a complex identification system. She didn’t really want to touch anything, because it all looked like something she would break. Or something that might incinerate her if she touched the wrong button. Fortunately, before she was forced to act, a smooth American voice addressed her.

“Hello? Server level. William Strife speaking.”

“Oh, uh, hi? I’m Kim, one of the editors, we’re having a bit of a problem with the computers?”

“Oh yes, that’s… that’s to be expected, I guess. We’re having some technical issues.” He sounded a little bit further away, as if he had moved away from the microphone.

“Who is it?” asked another faint voice, also American, but slightly more brash.

“The new editor girl,” said Will, “The editors sent her down.”

“I could just tell them it’s a problem on your end?” Kim suggested, “Or maybe if you know when you’ll be able to fix it, you could let me know?”

The second voice spoke to her, “Can you tell Colin that we’re having the chicken issue again?”

Kim spluttered out a laugh, “What?”

There was a slight pause, then Will added, “Oh, right. You’re new.”

For a few seconds there was a longer pause, then the unidentified voice said in a more cheerful tone, “Hey, why don’t you come in and have a look for yourself?”

“Woah,” said Will over the intercom, arguing with his coworker, “You sure about that?”

“It’ll be fine,” the other voice assured him.

Completely nonplussed, Kim watched as the giant steel door swung open. Stretching off into the distance were banks of machines: computers, servers, mysterious things she didn’t recognise. They were all locked behind shiny glass panels. The rows of machines stretched off to either side of her: this level was _huge_. Impossibly large.

From between two sets of storage banks, two men emerged, one with short sandy-blonde hair and a serious expression, the other with facial hair, gravity-defying brown hair and a slight smirk that seemed to sit permanently on his face.

“Hi, Kim wasn’t it?” said the more serious one and Kim recognised his voice as the one who had introduced himself as Will Strife.

“I’m Ridgedog,” the other one said, extending a hand to her, “Or Ridge. That’s what everyone calls me anyway.”

Kim shook his hand, then looked around in confusion, “This place is faancy…”

“It’s not bad,” Ridge nodded, with a slight note of pride.

“We managed to fix it up a little bit,” Will nodded, “With a bit of help here and there.”

“So…” Kim said, looking around, “To jump straight to the point - chicken issue? What on earth were you talking about?”

The two men exchanged a significant look, not one that entirely boded well.

“You’re pretty new here,” Will said, “So, this will probably seem kind of weird…”

Kim felt fairly prepared for weird. Things had been pretty weird at Yogtowers already. She followed them into the banks of computers. It was a bit of a maze in here, a place it’d be very easy to get lost. Sure enough, as they walked the sounds of chickens got louder and louder. It must be a computer virus, Kim reasoned, something that was playing chicken sounds through the speakers of a computer and had crashed the system. That made sense. Too much sense for this place.

“Don’t say we didn’t warn you,” Ridge added, as they came to a closed door. He pushed it open and at once Kim was hit with the racket, smell and sight of a thousand white chickens. Her jaw dropped open. They were _everywhere_ , in amongst all the equipment and squeezed in between the cables.

“What. The. Hell!?” she exclaimed.

“Yeeeaaah…” Will said, rubbing the back of his head, “Well, you see, there used to be one chicken, according to the Boss. I think it was called Clucky, apparently. But one day Clucky got lost amongst the wires and now every once in a while we have the chicken issue.”

There was a pause as Kim tried to process this explanation along with the sight of hundreds of chickens confined inside a small room with a lot of computer equipment. Try as she might, she failed to understand a word that Will had just said.

“That makes no frickin’ sense,” she said, looking at both of them.

“Yeah, I said that when I came to work here too,” Will shrugged, “But here we are.”

Kim couldn’t really argue with that. Unless they’d all come down with some kind of collective mental disorder, which did seem quite likely at this given moment, the evidence was right there in front of them.

“This whole building is filled with crazy shit, haven’t you noticed yet?” Ridge asked, a sudden twinkle in his eye, “Each level has its own weird properties. That’s my theory anyway.”

Things clicked together in Kim’s head, “Like the way the admin staff can make things disappear and reappear? That’s not just my imagination, is it? That was real.”

Ridge gave a chuckle, “Oh, that’s just the Multilevel Filing System. A neat storage solution.”

“That’s mine,” Will said, with a hint of annoyance, “Strife Storage Solutions, a subcompany of Strife Solutions. I have a patent.”

“Sure,” Ridge shrugged, ignoring him and looking back at Kim, “Look, I don’t want to freak you out, but this place isn’t exactly a normal workplace and the guys upstairs aren’t usually very upfront with that information. If the possibility of weird space-time abnormalities absorbing you into the ether is something you don’t like the sound of, this might not be the place for you.”

“Excuse me-?” Kim asked in a slightly strangled voice, but Will shot Ridgedog a glare and reassured her otherwise.

“That’s never happened, don’t worry about it. But he has a point with the whole anomalies thing. Do you mind?”

Kim stopped to think for a moment. To be honest, it was just a relief to know she hadn’t been going crazy before. So, this place had its quirks. Ok, that was a mild way of putting it, but in the end, she had still just got her dream job. If chickens occasionally brought down the servers and the admin staff had a bewitched filing system, what was that to her? Part of her knew she was being a little blasé about the whole thing, but she couldn’t help but feel it was all just… it was really kind of cool.

“No, I can dig it,” she grinned at them, “No monsters are going to eat me though, right?”

“No. Probably,” Ridge gave her that same smirk.

“So, what are you going to do about the…” she gestured vaguely at the chickens spazzing out all over the computers.

“Oh, the same as usual,” Will said vaguely.

“We’re suppliers for three local branches of KFC,” Ridge clarified.

“Ah,” said Kim. Poor Clucky. “I’ll go tell the others that it’s… the chicken problem.”

She turned around and went back towards the lift. When she was almost out of earshot she heard a sound that sounded suspiciously like a sword being drawn from a hilt, but ultimately she decided that it was best not to enquire any deeper for right now.

When she returned to the office, the editors were all in deep observance of the Lever Game and money seemed to be exchanging hands in bets. When she mentioned the chicken problem, almost everyone pulled an annoyed face. Zoey, on the other hand, looked sorrowful.

“The poor chickens…”

“It’ll be a while yet until they fix it,” Colin shrugged, “May as well go for lunch early.” This suggestion was followed by a groan of defeat from Ravs, who promptly shoved a handful of coins towards Teep.

“Yeah, before I lose any more of my money,” he complained.

Lunch was quickly becoming the highlight of Kim’s working day, even though she did enjoy her job. Today the staff room was busy as the technical problem had knocked everybody offline. Along with Nilesy and Rythian at their usual table, Sjin had joined them, as well as another fair-haired man that Kim didn’t recognise. The artists were clustered in a little group around the sofa, while a group of young men that Kim hadn’t yet been introduced to sat in another corner of the room with a couple of guitars between them and several sheets of paper spread out before them. A little bunch of studio techs were clustered around the fridge, so Kim just took a seat and waited to get her lunch later.

“Hey Kim,” Nilesy said brightly, “You haven’t met, Kim, right?” he asked the man sitting beside him. The fair-haired man shook his head, so Nilesy turned back to Kim, “This is Kim, the new editor. Kim, this is Zylus, our official incompetent.”

“Oh?” Kim said, slightly confused. Zylus looked a little exasperated.

“I’m an assistant. I… assist things,” he attempted to clarify.

“He’s an outstanding incompetent. I’ve never seen such a successful incompetent,” Sjin added enthusiastically.

Zylus shook his head. Apparently he was used to Nilesy and Sjin poking fun. Those guys were such trolls in their little Research cave.

The other editors had gathered around the table as well. Teep began signing to Zoey, who translated as usual.

“Did you guys hear about the new project?” she asked for him.

“Oh, yeah, don’t get me started,” Nilesy sighed, rolling his eyes, “They want to start three episodes a week? We’re rushed off our feet.”

“I feel bad for the artists,” Sjin added, “All that animation to do in that turnaround time? There’s no way they can keep it up for long.”

“Lewis has never given us more work than we can handle before,” Zoey said diplomatically, “I’m sure he’ll hire someone new if the workload gets too much to handle.”

Kim wasn’t aware of this new project - she was still new enough that all projects were new projects to her - but she listened closely to this reference to the boss, Lewis Brindley. She’d never had a chance to meet him yet, but he was a founder of the whole station and someone she’d need to impress if she wanted to move up the ladder eventually.

“He’s always been fair,” Sjin agreed. Then Ravs, Nilesy and Rythian made sucky-up noises.

“You have a meeting about getting into the talent and now you’re a suck up,” Nilesy mocked.

“Hey, Zoey just defended him too!” Sjin protested, “I’m not a suck up.”

This failed to stop the others, who enjoyed prodding fun at him.

“You’ll be as bad as Rythian soon,” added Ravs, which promptly elicited a ‘Hey!’ from Rythian.

The topic swiftly moved on and Kim decided she’d have to scope out information on her ultimate boss another time.

“Did you hear what happened with The Talent today?” Sjin was saying, his voice dropped to a slightly conspiratorial whisper.

“Oh, let me guess,” Ravs said sarcastically.

“They were totally outrageous and there were no consequences for them?” Rythian suggested.

“I said let me guess,” Ravs sounded almost genuinely hurt.

“They demanded six costume changes,” Sjin explained, “Set the whole production back by two hours. The whole tech staff had to work late without overtime.”

“Wow,” said Kim. She’d heard of working with divas, but that seemed quite extreme.

“I heard they’re doing it deliberately,” Nilesy said confidently, “I found out they are having some kind of argument with the upper management. I don’t know what, but apparently they are trying to disrupt as much as possible until they get it settled.”

“Maybe it’s just a negotiation,” Zoey said, trying to see the positive, “It’ll be fine soon, I’m sure.”

“Maybe,” Rythian agreed, but rolling his eyes slightly to indicate that he doubted it.

There was a slight lull in the conversation, during which Kim decided to try and get some straight answers out of her coworkers about the weird ‘anomalies’ as Will and Ridgedog had called them.

“So, this stuff, like, the chicken issue,” Kim began a little unsteadily, “Does this stuff happen… often?”

The others exchanged a look, which Kim felt was them trying to decide how much to tell the new person.

“Yogtowers can be a bit... quirky sometimes,” Zoey said, “Just like us.”

“Zoey means that we’re all a bunch of weirdos and this building is fucking weird,” Ravs said, less subtly.

“You get used to it,” Rythian added.

“We’re not really the guys to ask if you want to know about that,” Sjin said, “I don’t understand a bit of it, even after it’s been explained to me.”

“Just be careful where you poke around looking for information,” Nilesy continued, “Not to sound ominous, nothing will happen to you, but it seems to be a bit of a sore spot for management. Turps pretends none of this stuff ever happens. And good luck trying to speak to anyone higher up than him.”

Kim nodded. If any of these guys did know more, they apparently weren’t telling. She’d almost been prepared to write it off as a strange curiosity, but it had grabbed her attention now. She was quite determined to figure out what was going on. Where to look next?

She glanced over at the artists, who had been gathered around the sofa. Only two remained there now, Duncan and the other blond artist, Teutron. Would they be more prepared to talk? What about the admin staff? Will and Ridgedog had been useful, perhaps there was more that they could tell her. She decided to follow Nilesy’s advice against trying to investigate Turps or anyone higher up the ladder. It would do no well to upset her bosses for no reason. Teep still seemed like the most probable source of information, but he’d been avoiding her recently, it seemed. Maybe she was just being paranoid about that. In any case, she was now on the case.

After an extended lunch break, they returned to their office to find the servers back up and running. Apparently whatever solution had been applied to the chicken issue had worked perfectly fine. Poor Clucky…

In the late afternoon, with her work for the day already completed, Kim accompanied Zoey to the staff room for a drink before she went home. Those who had been there earlier were gone now, but the woman she’d met before was there, Fiona. Zoey blushed almost as soon as they walked in the door, but Fiona was too busy with her late lunch (or was it an early dinner?) to notice straight away. When she did look up, she gave them a grin.

“Hi Zoey, Kim,” she greeted them.

Kim leant against the countertop, putting the kettle on to boil, and she smiled back, “Hi there. Have you had a busy day?”

Fiona nodded, “An extra meal for all the production staff upstairs because of the holdups. It’s a bloody nightmare, I swear.”

Zoey seemed like she was slowly working up to actually being able to say comprehensible english words. She wasn’t the loudest person in the world, but Kim hadn’t found Zoey to be particularly shy either. It seemed pretty straight-forward as to what all the blushing and nervousness meant around this other girl. Kim felt the urge to meddle rising within her.

“Have you worked here for very long?” Kim asked Fiona, wondering if Zoey would finally find the courage to speak if Kim kept the conversation going for long enough.

“Oh, not really,” Fiona said, pausing as if she was counting in her head, “Five months? They expanded the staff around then, so they needed another caterer too. The way things are going, they’ll probably be bringing more people on soon.”

Kim took a glance at Zoey out of the corner of her eye. Apparently words still eluded her. Hmm, what topic could she introduce that was almost certain to give her something to say…

“Do you have a favourite show?” Kim asked Fiona, who looked a little surprised at the question.

“Um… probably the sketch show? I quite like the sketch show.”

Perfect! Kim saw an opportunity and took it. “Oh, you like that? Zoey is the editor for that.”

Fiona turned to look at Zoey, who seemed to have turned a darker shade of tomato red.

“Oh yeah?” Fiona said, “Well, it seems very well… edited.”

The two looked at each other for a moment, before Zoey managed to squeak, “Yeah, I do, thanks.”

The kettle boiled behind Kim, so she used the opportunity to fill two cups and pass one to Zoey. The atmosphere wasn’t awkward exactly, but without Kim pushing the questioning, Fiona went back to her food and Zoey had nothing else to say. Maybe forcing conversation wasn’t a good idea if it was just going to end in silence. It was probably time to stop meddling. For now.

“Bye Fiona,” said Kim as she walked off.

Fiona waved and Zoey mumbled, “Bye Fiona,” in a quiet voice.

“Bye Zoey,” Fiona replied, with a happy smile. Kim smiled, wondering if that meant something, but then remembered she’d just resolved to stop meddling. For now.

“So, you like her then?” Kim asked once they were out of earshot, her new resolve melting away like ice in the sun. Zoey turned even redder, something Kim wouldn’t have thought possible a moment before. That would be a yes then.

“That’s complicated. And I don’t like complicated things,” Zoey replied, slightly evasively. “I come here and work and see my friends, then I go home and watch netflix and play games. That’s simple. I like _that_.”

Hmm, apparently this was harder than just convincing her to go for it. From the little she knew him, Teep had probably already been silently encouraging Zoey to go for it for weeks. Kim decided not to push the matter, but she couldn’t resist one more try, “Well, if you did like her, I bet she’d be okay with that.”

“I- I don’t know about that,” Zoey said, still blushing. Kim didn’t say anything more. Tempting as it was to meddle, it wasn’t really any of her business after all. But Zoey seemed like a nice person, so Kim just hoped that she wasn’t holding herself back out of fear. Hopefully things would work out at their own pace.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, she cornered Teep in the car park as he arrived just after she did. It was a cold morning, fog rising from her breath as she talked.

“You aren’t going to talk to me about all the weird stuff? The anomalies?”

Teep shook his head, confirming Kim’s suspicions to be true. So why, then? Why take her to the office level and show her something extraordinary, then refuse to explain it?

“Were you trying to show me something?”

Teep nodded.

“So you wanted me to find out.”

Teep nodded again. Getting information out of him was torturously slow, but Kim had the feeling that even if Teep could speak, he’d be giving her one-word answers right now.

“Do you not know why? Do you want me to find out?”

Teep shrugged with a smile. Neither yes nor no, Kim assumed was his reply to that. She shook her head. Obviously Teep was going to be completely obstinate, so she may as well give up on this line of enquiry and let them both get in out of the cold.

They rode the lift up to the fifth floor and parted ways as Teep went to the editors’ room, while Kim went to the staff room to put her lunch in the fridge for the morning. On her way over to the kitchen area, her foot caught on something solid and she plunged to the floor. The something solid said, “Ow.” She landed hard on the ground and swore. Looking back, she saw she had tripped over Duncan Jones, who was lying on the ground and seemed startled by the interruption.

“What the hell, man? What are you doing?” she asked, confused and annoyed. It was hardly the best start to her day and her wrist hurt now.

“I didn’t think people were here yet,” he said, sounding equally as confused, as if it were perfectly normal to be lying in the middle of the carpet and she was the strange one for tripping over him.

“That’s not really an explanation,” Kim pointed out, sitting up. Apparently people around here just didn’t like to explain things ever.

“Oh, yeah. I was drawing the ceiling pattern. I noticed it yesterday. It’s very spacey and I like space.”

He sounded a bit dreamy when he talked about space. Kim looked up at the ceiling and saw nothing but plain white ceiling tiles with a light grey pattern. However, the notebook pages open on Duncan’s chest contained swirling galaxies and the beauty of the infinite cosmos. It looked wonderful, but… from ceiling tiles?

“If you say so,” she said, getting back to her feet. She looked down at Duncan, who gave no sign of getting up. “You know, someone’s probably going to trip over you again if you keep lying there.”

“Most people look where they’re going,” Duncan said, giving her a smile. Well, it was probably true that she should have seen him if she’d paid more attention to the floor, but why should she have expected someone to be lying down there!?

Duncan propped himself up on his elbows, “You’re very short.”

“Thanks?” Kim said, raising an eyebrow. She had always been tiny and she was a bit fed up hearing about it. “Maybe you’re just really tall.”

“Could be,” Duncan nodded. He still didn’t seem to be making any moves towards actually getting off the ground. He was a strange one, she’d give him that.

Kim picked up her lunch box that she’d dropped on the ground when she’d fallen over - thankfully it hadn’t spilt open - and took it over to the fridge. When she turned back, Duncan had finally got back on his feet. He really was tall, easily a foot bigger than she was.

“Sorry I tripped you over,” he apologised, with a light-hearted grin.

“I guess I wasn’t looking where I was looking,” Kim admitted grudgingly, “But, I don’t know, put up a sign or something next time, huh?” She glanced up at the ceiling tiles again, “I mean, if you’re so interested in the ceiling, why not just take a picture of it?”

Duncan looked up at the ceiling, then back at Kim with an expression of wonder, as if that was the best idea he had ever heard. “A photo, of course. You’re a genius.”

Kim watched him in surprise and amusement as he whipped out his phone and carefully took a picture. Of course the obvious answer was to take a photograph. Had he really not thought of it? Kim wasn’t sure if it was the distracted nature of an artist or if Duncan was just a really stereotypical ‘dumb blond’ or if he was just totally doped up right now. Maybe all three. His eyes looked pretty normal though.

“I got it,” he confirmed, as though Kim had expressed doubt in his ability to capture the ceiling on camera.

“Good for you, sweetheart,” Kim said, “I’m just gonna get back to work.”

“Okay, bye!” Duncan said cheerfully as she walked off. Yep, he was a special one alright.

The rest of the day was uneventful and had passed before she knew it. Since it was a Friday, everyone knocked off as soon as their work was done. Even Colin stopped working before five. Kim had a few things she wanted to be finished before Monday, so she was the last one out of the office at half five. When she stepped into the lift at half 5, she found it already occupied by a large ginger-haired and ginger-bearded man with glasses. He was dressed casually and he wore an extremely unusual t-shirt with a giant picture of a kitchen on it. Who he was or what he was doing here, Kim had no idea, perhaps he was some kind of delivery person or something. She gave him a smile anyway and stood silently as the lift descended to the bottom floor.

“Goodnight!” he said to her in a friendly manner, as they parted ways at the main doors.

“Goodnight,” she responded politely. The weekend lay ahead of her. After a long week of work, she was planning to spend most of it in bed. No doubt Monday would arrive all too soon.

 

 


	3. Further Down The Rabbit Hole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim is asked by Turps to help out on the production floor, where she gets to see the members of Hat Films in action for the first time. First however, she takes a detour to investigate what's behind that fancy door...

Monday morning dawned dim and misty. Kim hated the weather here sometimes. She did like the UK, but why did it have to have this climate? If they could just hook the entire island up to a giant boat and pull it down to sit next to Portugal, that'd be great. Still, there was nothing to do but get on with it. She drove to work, her windscreen wipers on the whole way, her lights ineffectual through the mist. Hopefully it would lift before she had to leave work again, because driving in these conditions was awful. Once she got into Bristol, the weather calmed down a bit and by the time she parked at Yogtowers, it was only drizzling. She'd forgotten her umbrella so she hurried from her car to the main doors with her hood turned up. Thankfully, it was warm and dry inside. Tom Perkins was already sitting at reception and he waved her over when she came in.

"Turps asked me to tell you that he needs to see you this morning," Tom said, "If you could go up to his office at 10am."

"Okay, thanks," Kim replied, "He didn't say why?"

"I'm afraid not, sorry Kim."

She hasn't managed to get herself fired yet, had she? No, she was worrying over nothing, she hadn't done anything wrong and Colin had been happy with her work so far. Maybe Turps just wanted to make sure that she had settled in okay.

The editors’ office was almost full when she arrived, with Colin, Zoey and Teep already sitting at their desks. Ravs was right on time as usual, arriving with just a few seconds to spare. He wasn’t one to get to work a minute earlier than he absolutely had to. Kim had barely had time to get in, get settled and set up her first project of the morning before the clock was starting to tick towards 10am. It was probably a good idea to go up a little early, just to make a good impression while she was still new. Just in case she was in some kind of trouble, it couldn’t hurt to be punctual at the very least.

Kim went to the lift and selected to go to level nine. Turps hadn't shown her around this level, but he had told her his office was here. Surely it would be fairly obvious which office belonged to him?

The lift pinged and opened into a fancier corridors downstairs. Kim looked to the left and the right, but there didn't seem to be any name plaques on any of the doors. She'd just have to explore on her own. There were a number of different doors here: level nine was where many of the performers had their offices. Turps’ office could be any one of these doors. Eventually, Kim gave up trying to guess and just picked the office door at the right end of the hall. If there was anyone behind this door, they could at least tell her which one belonged to Turps.

Kim knocked quietly on the door she had chosen, but there was no reply. She knocked a bit louder, then inched open the door. Empty. Clearly somebody worked here, because the office was well-decorated with figurines and posters on the walls, but whoever this office belonged to wasn’t here at the moment. Most of the decor was World of Warcraft related, with a few other pieces here and there that Kim recognised from games in the last few years: a Bioshock Big Daddy figurine; a poster from Dishonored; various models of ancient weaponry. There were a lot of books here too, not all of them in english. Her suspicion that this was Rythian’s office was confirmed when she noticed a large Swedish flag on the back of his door. That answered her question about which country he came from. Knowing Rythian, he was probably already down in the staff room for a morning cup of coffee. Not wanting to linger too long in an office that didn’t belong to her, Kim closed the door and carried on down the hall.

The next door had a strange symbol on it, a kind of spiral shape that Kim was sure she recognised, but she wasn’t quite sure from where. She gave a knock at the door that was almost immediately answered with a sing-song, “Come in!” that she recognised almost immediately. She’d spent half of last week editing videos for him. She pushed open the door and saw that this was indeed Martyn’s office. He was sitting at his desk in front of a computer, but he swivelled to look at her when she came in. He wore a green t-shirt and ‘green’ was the impression that Kim got from the office in general. There were a lot of plants around the place and a lot of decorations. Unlike Rythian’s office though, the decorations were less official and seemed to have been mostly been made by fans. There were a lot of cards and letters; now that Kim looked around, there were a lot of unopened packages and letters as well, all crammed into any available storage space, as well as a large postal bag in the corner that seemed to contain even more mail. Despite being so full, the office maintained a sense of airiness, possibly because of the light that poured in through the open window. It was a little chilly for winter, but it was also quite calming with the smell of all the fresh foliage. A large potted tree sat in the corner next to the window and its large green leaves spread out across the ceiling of the office. It looked like a banana tree, but somehow different.

“How can I help you?” Martyn asked cheerfully, while Kim was still looking around his office in awe.

Coming back to the moment, Kim looked at Martyn and gave a reply, “Hi Martyn, I’m the new editor, Kim. I’m actually looking for Turps’ office if you could possibly point me there?”

Martyn’s face brightened even more, “Oh right, you’ve taken over the Children’s Hour, yeah? You’re doing a great job, thanks a lot for the editing.”

“It’s no bother,” Kim insisted, a little flustered.

“Turps’ office is down the other side of the corridor,” Martyn explained, “Go down as far as you can and follow the corridor around the corner to the right. It’s the plain door at the end, next to the fancy wooden door.”

“Ok, thanks,” Kim nodded, “See you later.”

“Bye!” Martyn waved as she shut the door behind herself.

Quite happy after the friendly encounter, Kim set off down the corridor towards Turps’ office. As she turned the corner, she saw that there were only two doors down here: one plain white office door the same as the others on this level; the other, an ancient-looking weighty oak door that looked like it belonged on the front of an old church, not here in the middle of a modern office building. Martyn had told her that the plain door belonged to Turps, but Kim couldn’t help but feel intrigued by the fancy door. Who did it belong to? Why was it here?

She still had a few minutes before she was due to be at Turps’ office, so she allowed her curiosity to get the better of her. Kim walked slowly up to the wooden door and then knocked. The oak was solid under her knuckles, not ringing in a hollow tone like the other, newer doors had. There was no answer. She was in two minds about whether to continue, but she’d already seen some strange things in Yogtowers and she didn’t feel like she could let this one go uninvestigated. Taking a hold of the ring on the handle, she twisted it and pushed open the door. It was heavy and she had to lean against it to get it to move. She pushed it forward about halfway and peered inside. What lay within was so strange that her mouth fell open.

Kim pushed the door fully open and stepped into another world. The thin grey carpet in the corridor floor disappeared on the threshold and became large, worn stone slabs. The plaster walls of the office had been replaced by uneven stone blocks. The door closed behind her as she stepped further into the room. Her shoes echoed off the stone. Had she not known better, she would have sworn she’d just stepped into a medieval stone castle. The room was very small, just a little antichamber, but a spiral staircase ahead of her led upwards. What choice did she have but to go on? The office lay just behind her and it would be easy to turn back and leave, but she didn’t want to. This place didn’t feel threatening; golden light filtered in through a high arrow-slit window and there was a delicate smell in the air that reminded her of a crisp mid-winter evening.

Kim started to climb the staircase, up, up, up. It seemed to wind on forever. There were no landings or other levels, just one continuous stair up the tower. After climbing what must have been about eight floors, the stairs finally evened out into a long, thin corridor, about one hundred metres long but only five metres across. Kim paused to catch her breath and looked up. The ceiling was very high and vaulted with wooden beams, while the same golden-toned light streamed in from high arched windows. It looked like a very narrow cathedral chamber or something out of Harry Potter come to life. A long, central strip of dark red carpet ran down the centre of the corridor, while the sides were the same stone slabs as downstairs. There were a handful of feathers scattered the length of the hall, but no sign of whatever had left them there. At the opposite end of the corridor, lay a single door. Suddenly the office seemed a long way away, but Kim didn’t want to give up now. She knew there was something beyond that door and she wanted to discover what it was.

She walked steadily down the hallway. A gentle hooting grew louder as she approached. When she reached the door, identical to the one she had entered this place through, she paused. Pressing her ear against the oak, she tried to hear what lay beyond. The door was too thick to hear anything other than the occasional hoot. Kim strengthened her resolve and gave the door a firm push.

The room beyond was magnificent. It was completely circular and reached up many levels to a roof far above. The roof was held up by a series of arches, through which hundreds of birds flocked and circled. The walls were lined with great tapestries, yet the designs upon them were curiously recognisable and modern; adorned with medieval style renditions of images from games, movies, TV and music. Two curving staircases led from the ground up to a grand balcony which seemed to have several rooms beyond, further into the tower. Here, on the floor, there was a grand long table like something that an ancient king might have feasted at, and a huge stone fireplace with a great fire crackling in the hearth. Long bookcases lined the wall underneath the balcony, in front of a well stocked kitchen, and a large, comfortable seating area. Gold and glass were much in evidence. Kim just stood in shock, trying to take it all in. It was beautiful. She didn’t think all the money in the world could build this tower.

As she stood there, an owl flew in from over the balcony and swooped in around her. Kim raised her arms slightly, not sure if she was comfortable with it getting to close. However, the owl did her no harm, but observed her. After a few circles around her, it flapped away and landed on the balcony’s railing. Suddenly she heard footsteps approaching from the rooms beyond the balcony from where the owl had appeared. Kim looked around hurriedly, feeling as if she should hide, but it seemed silly to even try. Instead she just stood straight and waited for the arrival of whoever lived in the tower.

A beautiful woman appeared at the balcony. Her blonde hair was swept up in a intricate style and she wore a plain, blue, old-fashioned gown. Kim would have expected the owner of this tower to be haughty or posh, but somehow she didn’t get that feeling from this woman. Despite the elegant surroundings, she seemed oddly normal.

“Hello? Who are you?” the woman asked. The voice wasn’t posh either. She sounded like a normal person that Kim might have met in the street. It threw her off. The mixture of normality in this place was stranger to her than if it had all been fancy and weird.

“Eh… I’m Kim…? The new editor?” Kim said. That didn’t sound right at all. This didn’t even seem like the same world as the old office. Did the term ‘editor’ even have any meaning here?

“Oh, hello,” the woman smiled, “I’m Hannah. This is my tower.”

Kim blinked a few times. She _knew_ Hannah, or knew of her anyway. Hannah had several shows on the station. She hadn’t even recognised her at first in these surroundings, but now that she looked more closely, she realised it was actually the same person.

“It’s all a bit silly, this place,” Hannah said, indicating the tower around her, “I hope you aren’t too shocked by it all.”

“I just saw the door and… I was curious…” admitted Kim, feeling a little embarrassed. She didn’t have a purpose to be here at all, she was just trespassing in Hannah’s space, but what she’d found here made her glad that she had come.

“Understandable,” Hannah agreed. The owl flapped up onto her shoulder and Hannah began descending the staircase towards Kim.

“So, eh, what’s with this place?” Kim asked. “And the birds and everything?”

“This is Mr Owl,” Hannah said, stroking the owl on her shoulder. It preened itself, delighted with the attention, “The other birds are also owls. People send them in and when I bring them to the tower, they start to come alive. It started out with Mr Owl, but as time went on… well, there’s a lot of owls now.”

“Uh huh,” Kim nodded, starting to feel distinctly overwhelmed. The weird invisible filing system had been one thing, and a multitude of chickens in the server level was a bit weird, but all of this right here was on a whole other level. In fact, she felt like she’d skipped several levels and was now right at the top of the crazy tree. She felt a little light headed…

Kim woke up a few minutes later, lying on top of a pretty four-poster bed. Blue silks hung from the bed frame to create a delicate shade. Hannah sat on the end of the bed, while Mr Owl hopped up and down the baseboard. Okay, so it hadn’t just been a dream.

“Good, I was starting to get worried,” Hannah said once Kim opened her eyes, “I thought I might have to call a doctor for you or something.”

“Am I going crazy?” Kim questioned, as much to herself as to Hannah, “Because this seems legitimately crazy. Am I in some mental asylum and these are just the hallucinations?”

“Not unless we’re all having the same hallucination,” Hannah said, “I think I felt that way myself when I first discovered this place. But it seems pretty real to me. Real enough that I don’t really worry about it.”

Kim wasn’t sure she was completely reassured by that, but everything did feel pretty damn real. There wasn’t the same ‘dreamy’ quality that dreams always had. There were two options really: either it was real or it wasn’t. If it was real, she had better act like it was, and if it wasn’t she was crazy, so it didn’t really matter how she acted. There was something both disconcerting and comforting about that thought.

Kim wanted to ask a lot of questions, but she couldn’t really get them sorted out straight in her head. All she managed was to stammer out, “Why?”

Hannah seemed to understand what she was trying to ask. “I have no idea why this place is the way it is. There are oddities all over this building. I don’t know if it’s because of where we are or what we are built on or what, but it’s just the way it is here. For the most part, we can get on with our work and sometimes the strange things make our lives a little easier once we understand how to use them.”

She was just so matter-of-fact about the whole thing. Kim was impressed at how little the weirdness seemed to affect her. Maybe it was denial or maybe she had really just become used to it.

“I came to work here right at the start,” Hannah said, “When we found this tower, Lewis gave it to me for an office. A sort of present, I suppose. And I love this place. It has everything I could want. Things tend to just appear here when I want them. Anything that isn’t electronic anyway.”

Kim looked at her phone. It wasn’t just out of signal, it was completely switched off.

“Yeah, you shouldn’t stay here too long with your phone or ipod,” Hannah explained, “They’ll start to disintegrate eventually. Same for your clothes. That’s why I’m wearing this. I’d prefer something more modern, but they just unravel after a few days…”

Kim gave her hoodie an experimental tug, but it seemed fine so far. She didn’t plan to linger though. It would be more than a little embarrassing if all her clothes unravelled and she had to walk back to her car in the buff.

The light-headedness had evaporated, so she sat up on the bed. Mr Owl hopped off the baseboard and jumped into her lap, pecking lightly at her shoes. He gave a small hoot. Kim slowly extended a hand towards him, not wanting to frighten him with a sudden movement. When he didn’t react, she stroked the feathers on his head. The owl hooted again happily.

“He likes you,” Hannah said, sounding surprised, “He doesn’t usually take to people that well. He still tries to peck Lewis on the head, although I swear he does that just to annoy him.” She looked at the owl slightly sternly and Mr Owl almost managed to appear slightly bashful.

“This office is incredible,” Kim said, “Not just this tower, but the whole place. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Hannah shrugged, “You probably won’t again. I don’t know if it’s magic or some kind of science warp to another dimension, but as far as I know nowhere else like this exists. We certainly aren’t telling anyone about it. Last thing I need is some government secret agent poking their way around my tower.”

Kim nodded. She sure as hell wasn’t going to be telling anyone. They’d definitely think that she was crazy.

“So you just live here, in this weird tower?” Kim asked.

Hannah nodded, “I mean, I used to have a normal flat. But once I was here, I just started going home less and less. There’s a bed here, a kitchen, and you can believe it’s a lot nicer than where I used to live. Plus, it’s free. So why pay for a flat in Bristol when I can stay here instead?”

Hannah thought about that for a moment and added, “Only problem is that modern technology doesn’t really work here, but that’s not the end of the world. Yogtowers is full of offices where I can use a computer if I want to go and play Dota 2.”

Kim couldn’t really argue with that. After all, she liked her own house, but it hardly compared to a mythical tower, did it? What could?

Somewhere in the tower, a bell chimed a deep, warm tone. Twelve times. Kim looked around in panic, but she couldn’t see the clock. “How long have I been here?”

“Hmm, about two hours. You were out for a little bit.”

Kim jumped to her feet, displacing Mr Owl who rolled back onto the bedsheets with a disapproving hoot. “Oh, I was meant to have a meeting with Turps two hours ago,” Kim complained, “I’ve only been here a week, I don’t want to get a reputation for being unreliable already.”

Hannah laughed, which annoyed Kim a little. It was ok for her, she had a secure job and a fantasy tower. Kim needed this job to pay her rent.

“What is it?” she finally demanded.

Hannah shook her head, “Sorry. Just, don’t worry about it. This tower has another secret. Time moves much faster here.”

“Eh?”

“What I mean is, time doesn’t work here like it does outside. If two hours have passed here, it’s probably more like two minutes downstairs. You won’t be late at all. When did you come in here?”

Kim shrugged, “Maybe… ten to ten?”

“Then it’ll be no later than five to ten when you leave. Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh.” Kim felt a little deflated as her panic left her.

Hannah smiled, “Sorry, it’s a bit much to get used to, isn’t it?”

“A little bit,” Kim agreed.

“If you’re worried about your meeting, then you can go,” Hannah said, “I won’t keep you any longer.”

Hannah got to her feet as well and walked with Kim. The bedroom door led to a short corridor that attached to the balcony. From there, Kim could go down the staircase and out of the tower the same way she had entered.

“Thanks for looking after me,” Kim said, “And sorry for fainting on you.” She blushed slightly. She’d never fainted before and it was more than a bit embarrassing.

“It’s fine,” Hannah said, leaning on the balcony railing, “You can come anytime. It’s just the four of us girls in the office, so sometimes it’s nice to have a bit of female company.”

As Kim walked back down the corridor towards the long spiral staircase, she realised that there was at least six women in Yogtowers if she counted herself, Hannah, Zoey, Minty, Fiona and the artist Nina. There might even be more that she hadn’t met yet. How often did Hannah actually leave her tower…?

Kim hurried down the stairs and exited the large wooden door. When it closed behind her, she was suddenly back in the ordinary office. She felt oddly disappointed with the real world. There was a real temptation to turn back and just return to the tower. However, her phone was working again and it showed the time as five to ten, just as Hannah had predicted. Incredible.

Trying to put the tower out of her thoughts and bringing her mind back to reality and her job, she knocked on the other door in this section of the corridor. “Just a second!” called Turps from inside. Kim could hear him finishing up a phone call inside. “...yes, I agree. I’ll talk to Lewis about it, don’t worry. Ha, yes, I’m sure Simon will be very excited about it too… I guarantee the Hats will be at their best. Yes, very well. Ok, bye. Bye now!”

There was a click as he put the phone down and then footsteps bounded over to the door and then it opened quickly to reveal Turps as his usual energetic self. “Kim! Hello, hi, come in.” He pointed to a chair opposite his desk, “Have a seat, have a seat! How are you doing?”

Kim barely had time to say, “Good.”

Turps continued, “That’s great! So, I just called you up here to ask a small favour if you wouldn’t mind. I need a member of the editing staff to go up to the production floor today. We’re filming a new video series, you see, and we’d like you on board to be present for the filming. Is that okay?”

“S-sure,” Kim stammered. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was getting herself in to, but she didn’t want to refuse a new opportunity either. It was never a bad idea to get as much experience as possible. The more things you knew how to do, the more indispensable you were to the company.

“Fantastic. Tom wanted to have an editor on board, so that you could see his vision, he’s all about the vision. Wonderful artistic producer, Tom. I believe the shoot starts at midday, but Tom will be setting up already, so if you could just go upstairs to the main studio, I’m sure he’ll be waiting there for you. Thanks so much Kim, you’re a star.”

“It’s no problem. Thanks for asking me,” Kim replied. She decided to escape before Turps could bowl her over with any more of his lightning-speed conversation. The phone started ringing before she’d even left the office and Turps was already talking to this next person. Clearly he was a very busy man.

Kim felt like she was in need of a break, but it seemed like her day was actually only just beginning. She called the elevator and got in. It was already occupied by the other blond artist, Teutron. He was quiet, but when she didn’t press any buttons (level 10 was already highlighted as his destination), he asked, “Where you called up for Tom’s ‘artistic vision’ as well?”

“Yeah,” Kim answered in a faintly resigned voice.

Teutron gave a slight chuckle, “Unlucky.”

Kim would have asked him how bad it was going to be, but then the lift opened onto the main studio floor and she was hit by the noise of a dozen people bustling around. She followed Teutron over to a table in the middle of the floor where several people were clustered around. One of them was the writer Tom Clark, while one was a shorter man with a plain, happy face and neat black hair. The other one that she didn’t recognise was a tall, pale, slim man with blond hair and a pair of headphones resting around his neck. The last person at the table was Will Strife, who gave her a smile and a wink. When Tom Clark looked up and saw them, he nodded, “That’s everyone then. Everyone, this is Kim, the new editor.” The others looked up to see the newest addition to the Yogtowers family. “This is Tom Bates, cameraman extraordinaire,” Tom Clark said, indicating the darker haired man, “Sam, our audio guru, and Will, our tech specialist. I see you’ve met Teutron already.”

With introductions out of the way, Tom Clark got down to explaining what the shoot was to be today. Kim’s only role was observing and taking notes so that she could relay accurately what was wanted from the editing team, while Teutron’s role was similar for the artists. The others had much more active roles. Tom Clark was producing, Tom Bates was directing and running the control of several different cameras and cameramen, while Sam was going to be taking care of all of the audio and Will was in charge of several different special effects while making sure all the equipment was still running. Compared to all of that noise and bustle, Kim felt a little bit useless standing off to the side behind the camera with Teutron.

The Talent weren’t ready yet, so she felt like she may as well make small talk while they were standing around waiting. “How long have you been working here?” she asked Teutron, who seemed like the quiet type.

“Oh, a few months,” he shrugged, “Not too long. I worked from back home before I moved here for a full position. I’m the newest artist. I suppose that’s why the others made me come up here for them.”

“Ah, I feel you there,” Kim nodded. She was beginning to have suspicions that Turps probably hadn’t even asked for her specifically, but that she might have been ‘volunteered’ by her savvier coworkers.

“You’re just new though, right?” he continued, “Do you like it here?”

“Yeah, it’s not bad,” she smiled, “It’s got a lot of quirks, but I almost feel like I’m starting to get used to it.” In a way, she was. Despite being thrown into an even greater level of craziness this morning with Hannah’s stone tower, she’d come to accept that it was real fairly quickly. At this point, she’d even accepted that it probably wasn’t even the weirdest thing she was going to find at Yogtowers. Although it had hardly been in the job description, she couldn’t say that people hadn’t tried to warn her. Kim felt like she could deal with it.

“You made a bit of an impression on Duncan,” Teutron mused.

“Oh yeah?” Kim asked, a bit surprised, “What, with my knee when I tripped over his head?” She snorted slightly at her own bad joke. “That would leave an impression.”

“I don’t know,” Teutron admitted, “He just mentioned you. That doesn’t mean much, I suppose.”

“Is he quite new too?” Kim asked. She could see him being one of the more junior members of the team. He seemed a bit spaced out for a more senior role.

Teutron shook his head, “No, he’s been here longer than all of us, although it’s Harry that heads up the artists’ team. I guess he didn’t want the responsibility. I don’t know much about it. I never asked and Duncan doesn’t talk about himself much.”

When he finished speaking, he looked at something over Kim’s head and sighed, “Ah, they’re here.”

Kim turned around in time to see The Talent making their grand entrance through the studio doors. First was Chris Trott, dressed in fashionably torn up jeans, a v-neck shirt, the same ridiculous fur jacket he’d worn on Kim’s first day, and a pair of jewelled sunglasses, despite the fact that he was inside. His face was haughty and petulant, but every so often he flashed a winsome smile showing very white teeth. The second man was Alex Smith or Al Smiffy, incredibly tall with blazing red hair and beard, and a handsome face with an impeccable grin. He swaggered in wearing jeans, large boots and a polo shirt with a turned up collar. The final member of the group was Ross Hornby, another tall man, although slightly shorter than Smith, dressed more plainly than the other two, in a white t-shirt and jeans. He was dark-haired and pale with piercing, slightly manic, cloudy blue eyes. He seemed to be observing everything, unlike Trott and Smith who seemed more self-absorbed. Kim had seen them all before, but it was something else to see them here in person. They seemed so different to how they looked on the screen where they were smiling, friendly and charismatic. They retained aspects of that, but underneath there were other qualities that the camera didn’t reveal.

Before Kim had much time to reflect, the production began and there was little time to think of anything else. Cameras raced on tracks around the floor, the Toms called for scenes, cuts and retakes. As the action was played out again and again, Tom Clark stood with Kim and Teutron beside a monitor, pointing out things to be edited and pieces where he wanted animations and art. At first it was interesting, then it became an information overload, and finally it became a bore. Kim hadn’t realised how long it was going to take. She was used to getting sent hours of footage and needing to cut out 90% of it to make a usable video, but she hadn’t realised how much longer it took when the cameras weren’t even rolling. Everything that happened between each take - the audio checks, moving equipment, directions, touching up make up - it all seemed to take forever. It was hours before Tom Clark decided that they were finally done.

“Thank god,” Kim sighed quietly. Teutron nodded silently in agreement with her.

Trying to not be completely useless, she helped Tom carry his stacks of papers back from his chair to the large table they had convened at that morning. She’d just sat a pile of scripts down neatly in a box when she quickly turned and bumped right into someone. Backing up, she looked up from the chest she’d walked into, to the grinning face of Alex Smith.

“Uh, hello?” she said in confusion.

“Haven’t seen you around here before. New blood down in the office?” he asked her.

“Yeah, I guess,” she said. He was a lot taller than her and she found it difficult to look directly up at him when he was looming over her like this. Why was he grinning at her like that?

“What is it that you do then?”

“I’m an editor,” Kim said. She didn’t really know what else to say, but he seemed intent on making conversation for some reason. Part of her said that it would be beneficial to be on talking terms with a star of the station, but the rest of her brain was very unsure how she felt about the Hats and their diva qualities. For now, she’d definitely prefer to just avoid them.

“Does that mean you have to spend hours looking at me then?” he asked her. Kim wasn’t entirely sure why he asked that, but it seemed like a leading question to her. It didn’t help that she’d just noticed how very blue his eyes were.

“Actually I mostly edit Martyn’s work at the moment? I’m new, they probably don’t want to put me on the main accounts yet…” Her voice hadn’t wavered, but suddenly Kim felt very foolish in what she was saying, as if she’d just stepped outside her body for a moment and was now watching herself prattle on about nothing.

Smith seemed to roll his eyes at the mention of Martyn, “Pfsh, the ‘Children’s Hour’, must be a chore to sit and work on that all week. Would you care to work on something more interesting?”

Kim didn’t know what to say. Was he offering her something else to do? But editing Martyn’s stuff wasn’t boring at all, in fact he was usually concise and professional and didn’t need a lot of takes to get it right. And what was Smiffy trying to get out of all of this anyway?

She was saved from having to respond by Ross, who grabbed Smiffy by the upper arm and pulled him away, saying, “Come on, we’re done for the day, stop bothering the staff.”

Smith gave him a dark look, but turned away anyway. He reached into his pocket and took out a little card which he handed over to Kim. “Here’s my card.” Then, with an outrageous wink, he followed Ross away out of the studio. Blinking like she’d just been staring into a bright light, Kim looked down at the card. It just said:

**Al Smiffy**

**Hat Films**

**Level 11**

**YogTowers**

On the reverse, there was a telephone number, an email address and their website address. Kim felt a little dazed from the whole encounter. Had he just tried to give her his number, or was she simply overthinking things? She was almost certainly overthinking it, she decided. After all, he was a star and she was just a lowly editor on staff. Still, she was quite glad to get in the lift and get back down to the Fifth Floor, where she belonged.

It was late in the afternoon by the time they’d finished in the studio, so Kim just had time to eat a late lunch alone in the staff room and then retell her instructions to her fellow editors back in the office before it was time to go home. It was a relief to go home and climb into her bed, but she found her mind racing after the events of the day. She tried to block it out and get to sleep. She’d be back in the madhouse soon enough.


	4. The Sinister Side Of The Servers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a hard week of work on the project, Kim finds even more work to do somehow. At least there's a nice pizza-y reward, even if she doesn't get to enjoy it with everyone she had originally planned. She's going to need the energy, as the anomalies step up a notch and she continues looking for answers about where they come from in the first place.

The next day, thankfully, didn’t involve any confrontations with fellow staff members. In fact there was little time for anything other than doing her work, thanks to the new project that had been lumped on them. These live projects were always tight with a quick turnaround and they tended to involve almost every department, so it seemed that the whole office was busy. Whenever Kim wandered along to the staff room to get a new drink or for a five minute break, it was always empty. After a couple of days, she found that she missed the usual camaraderie. Life at Yogtowers was generally laid back, but when things got busy, they got busy.

It wasn’t until Friday that most of the work was finally over. Colin collected all their files just before lunch time and sent them off. He leant back in his chair, rubbing his eyes, and said, “You guys are free to go whenever you like. Good work this week.”

As usual, Ravs didn’t need to be told twice and he was swinging his backpack over his shoulder and heading out with a wave in about five minutes. Kim was considering going home just because of how tired she felt, but she’d already brought her lunch with her, so she figured that she might just stay for an hour or two more just to fix up a couple of other things she’d had to let slide over the busy week. At least this way she’d have less to do on Monday, even if it was really tempting to skip out immediately.

“Do you want to come to lunch now?” Zoey asked her, pausing in front of Kim’s desk with Teep in tow. Kim nodded, getting to her feet, but Colin told them to go ahead without him. They walked along the corridor to the staff room, which was crowded for the first time in several days. Sam, the audio technician, seemed to be asleep on one of the sofas with his feet up, and Harry the artist seemed similarly conked out on the other side of the room. Minty was sitting in the corner talking to Teutron, who gave Kim a little nod as she walked in. One of the Toms - the one with the giant beard - was sitting at a computer, lost somewhere in Azeroth. Nilesy was sitting alone in his usual place at the main table, where Zoey, Teep and Kim soon joined him with their food. Even Nilesy looked tired, with dark rings under his eyes. Kim hadn’t been entirely sure that he actually did any work until now, considering the amount of time he seemed to spend in the staff room.

“You look really tired,” Zoey said as kindly as possible once they were sitting around the table together, “Aren’t you finished working yet?”

Nilesy looked like he needed a good fourteen hours of sleep, but instead he seemed like he was trying to compensate for that by drowning himself in a large cup of coffee. He shook his head, “Nah, I can’t go home yet, I still have some stuff to finish. I’m _almost_ done. Almost.”

Teep started signing and Zoey immediately began to translate as usual, “Where’s Sjin? He’s still helping, right?”

“No,” Nilesy said in a voice that betrayed his bitterness, “He keeps going upstairs to record things more and more lately, and guess who’s left with all the work?” He rubbed his eyes under his glasses, then waved a hand, trying to brush off his annoyance, “Sorry, I’m not annoyed at him. But if they are going to keep calling him upstairs, they need to hire someone to do his job down here. Turps keeps promising, but I’ve basically been doing both our work for two weeks now.”

“Well, I could maybe help?” offered Zoey haltingly, “I mean, I don’t know that I’m very good at research, but…”

Although every lazy atom in her body wanted to pretend she wasn’t part of this conversation and escape to somewhere that she could sleep, Kim decided not to leave her friends in the lurch. “I’ll help too, if it’ll make things go faster. With our help you’ll be home for dinner, right?”

Teep gave an affirmative nod, to show his support for this idea.

Nilesy appeared genuinely surprised and grateful for their offers. “I mean, if you’re sure-” He broke off, then gave them a tired smile, “I didn’t sleep last night, if you’re going to offer then I’m going to take you up on that. Sorry.”

This was probably the point where she was supposed to be feeling warm and fuzzy in her altruism, Kim mused, as they made their way to the researcher’s office a few minutes later. She wasn’t really feeling it. Her thoughts were mostly on going home. But since Nilesy looked about as tired as she felt, it just felt too cruel to leave him here working for hours on his own. She wasn’t sure what kind of voodoo magic he was using, but he could be oddly… what was the word? Winsome? Cute? Adorable? Not often, but occasionally he just seemed to give off these vibes like a little lost puppy. Kim cursed her lack of resistance to these things. She always had a soft spot for cute things, but she felt like a six foot scotsman shouldn’t be able to fit into that category.

The state of the little room where Nilesy and Sjin worked told the entire story of the past week. One computer utterly surrounded in a clutter of papers, a few discarded bottles and cans, while the other desk was as pristine as if it had never been used. Kim knew Sjin wasn’t exactly tidy, so Nilesy obviously had been truthful when he’d said Sjin had hardly been here. It wasn’t Sjin’s fault if he had been given more work upstairs, but the managers really should have stepped up to help Nilesy with the workload in the meantime. How long would he have had to keep working if his friends hadn’t stepped in?

“Right, what have you got for us?” Kim asked, all business. There was no point prevaricating; the sooner they started, the sooner they finished. Zoey stacked up a couple of the papers in an attempt to be neat. Teep rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, hang on…” Nilesy said, diving under a few sheets of paper until he finally came up with what he was looking for, “Here it is. First I’ve to find a location for their next shoot. It needs to be within a couple hours drive, they need a place to do a few exterior shots. A proper quaint little english village. If you guys help me research, I’ll do all the calling.” He repressed a shudder at the word ‘calling’. Apparently he disliked using a telephone.

“Sure, we can do that,” nodded Kim, who was just pleased that she wouldn’t be doing a ton of paperwork.

“Can we log onto Sjin’s computer?” Zoey asked.

“You can log in as a guest I think,” Nilesy said, “He won’t mind.”

He better not mind when we’re doing his work for him, Kim thought to herself as Zoey booted up the other computer. Kim pulled a chair up beside her. Tee had a tablet that he used, sitting on the desk beside them. Kim suggested that they start out on google maps to see what places there were around Bristol.

“Chipping Sodbury?” Kim giggled, “That sounds like the most english town in the world.”

Unfortunately the name seemed to be the most interesting thing about Chipping Sodbury. They moved onto the next place, a town called Cheddar that had an interesting gorge and series of caves. The images on google showed it was quite an old-fashioned and pretty town as well, but Nilesy shook his head when he looked over their shoulders.

“It’s a bit too… dramatic?” he said apologetically.

“Since when are you a location scout anyway?” Kim asked him, a little frustrated as they went through two or three other towns that he also deemed unsuitable. There was even a town called Nailsea, which sounded a lot like Kim trying to say Nilesy’s name in his accent.

“I just do research,” Nilesy shrugged, keeping his eyes on his computer screen, “They want to find something, they come to me. That includes locations.”

Teep snapped his fingers to get their attention, then showed them his tablet screen, which showed a little town called Lymington. It was very picturesque and at the seaside to boot. Kim and Zoey looked at Nilesy hopefully.

“It’s a little far away…” he said, then backtracked slightly at their faces, “I’ll put it on the ‘maybe’ pile?”

Kim sighed, starting to get bored of this task already, “Nilesy, this place is called Wookey Hole. Doesn’t that sound like a great place to film? It has a cave system and everything. Wookey Hole. Come on.”

“Eh…” Nilesy said, but he was saved from having to explain why Wookey Hole didn’t fit his necessary specifications by Teep clicking his fingers again. Nilesy surveyed this new offering - the village of Chew Magna - and nodded.

“Yeah, that’s not bad,” Nilesy said, “Watermill and everything. I reckon they’ll be happy with that.”

Kim was starting to regret offering to help out. Sure, she’d have felt guilty if she didn’t, but a couple of hours of TV and noodles at home and she was fairly confident the guilt would have faded. They spent the next few hours helping Nilesy clear his backlog, researching for information online, filling out silly bits of paperwork, and tracking down books online for the writers. Finally, Nilesy stretched out his arms and told them that they had done all they could.

“Thanks a lot guys,” he said, “I’d have been here for hours if it wasn’t for you. If you hang around, I’ll get us some pizza.”

Kim leaned back in her chair. Pizza did sound like a good reward for her efforts. After a couple of minutes arguing over pizza toppings and side dishes, Nilesy called up the local pizza place and placed their order.

“Let’s go to the staff room,” Zoey suggested.

Kim wasn’t going to argue, this room didn’t have windows and over the last few hours she’d had the increasing feeling that she was trapped in a large box. The four of them traipsed along to the staff room. Most of the people who had been here earlier had cleared out except for Tom who was still playing WoW on the computer. A lot of people had a semi-addiction to WoW in the office. Kim had never been a big WoW player; she was more of a nintendo person. The other person occupying the room was Fiona, who was sitting at the main table and eating her usual late-lunch that she ate here everyday after catering lunch to the guys upstairs.

“What have you guys been doing?” she asked them as they sat together as a group around the little table.

“Work,” said Nilesy, “Too much work.”

“We’re getting pizza now,” Zoey said in a cheerful manner, before almost immediately turning pink.

“Pizza? Man, I’d have waited for that instead…”

Her dinner was some kind of beef noodles and Kim was almost tempted to offer to swap that out for her share of the pizza, because it looked delicious. The benefits of being a cook, always having something delicious to eat. Kim did a lot of cooking, but she still wouldn’t say she was really great at it.

“You can have a slice if you like,” Kim offered instead.

Fiona shook her head, “Nah, it’s okay. Don’t need to put on any more weight.” She pinched at her waist, although she wasn’t fat at all.

Zoey’s mouth dropped open. “Don’t say that! You’re beautiful!” she exclaimed, in a slightly too-loud voice. Everyone looked at her in surprise - even beardy Tom looked up from his computer - and she coloured even darker than she already had.

“Yeah, don’t be down on yourself,” Kim said quickly, trying to avert the awkward silence, “Have as much pizza as you like.”

“Excuse me,” Zoey said, getting to her feet quickly and hurrying from the room.

“Wait!” Fiona said, looking a little wide-eyed, but Teep held up a hand and then went after Zoey himself. Kim felt the urge to go and see if she was okay, but knew it was probably for the best that she stay away and let her old friend deal with it instead.

“Zoey gets a bit nervous,” Nilesy said delicately.

“Yeah,” Fiona nodded, sounding a little far-away.

“It happens,” Kim nodded, trying to pretend that nothing strange had happened. She was getting used to that lately, but this seemed more important than anything else. She wished there was something she could do for Zoey, but it didn’t seem like it.

“I should go downstairs and get the pizza,” Nilesy said, glancing at his watch, “It’ll be here soon.”

“I’ll help you carry stuff up,” Kim offered, following him out of the room. When she looked back, Fiona looked a bit lonely sitting there by herself, but Kim couldn’t think of anything to say that would help. ‘Don’t worry, she’s just in love with you?’ It wasn’t her place to say such a thing, if Fiona would even believe her. Kim just followed Nilesy towards the lift. There was no sign of Teep or Zoey in the corridor, but they might have gone back along to the editors’ office.

“She’s just anxious,” Nilesy said, watching the number on the panel tick upwards as the lift climbed to their floor, “Zoey. She has anxiety. So do I. I hope you understand.”

“Yeah, of course,” Kim said, “I mean, I don’t have anxiety, but I get it. I don’t think any different of her.”

“Good,” Nilesy nodded. Maybe he was asking for himself as well.

The lift doors opened and they both stepped in. Kim fiddled with her purse, looking for coins for a tip since Nilesy had been generous enough to pay for the pizza. When she pulled her wallet out of her pocket, a little card fell out of it onto the floor without her noticing.

“You dropped this,” Nilesy said, picking it up and handing it back to her. It was the business card that Smith had given her a few days before. She’d just stuck it in her wallet without thinking about it and had forgotten about it since.

“Oh, thanks,” she said, taking it from Nilesy. She stuck it back in her wallet, which she returned to her pocket. Nilesy’s eyes followed the card, but he looked away quickly before it seemed like he was staring. When he looked back her Kim got the feeling he wanted to speak, but he didn’t say anything. The lift opened on the ground floor and Nilesy walked out ahead of her. The pizza delivery boy was already waiting at the glass doors. They carried out their transaction easily and soon Kim and Nilesy were in on their way back up to the staff room with some boxes of delicious-smelling pizza.

They stepped out of the elevator together, but before she could walk along the corridor, Nilesy stopped her.

“Look, Kim, I know it’s not really my place…” he paused awkwardly, searching for the right words to say, “But you’re new here, so I just thought you should know… getting involved with Al Smiffy is a really _bad_ idea.” His face was quite flushed in embarrassment.

“Oh- oh I wasn’t,” Kim protested, feeling embarrassed herself, all the more so because she had to admit she had been a little flattered when Smith gave her the card. She had no intentions though! Dating a coworker seemed like a bad enough idea normally and Smith - well, all of Hat Films - had serious problems. Definitely not boyfriend material. Not even one night stand and drunken mistakes material.

“Sorry,” Nilesy apologised, “I just- just wanted to make sure you knew.” To cover up the embarrassment they were both experiencing, he left the conversation there and walked back to the staff room. Kim wasn’t sure when things had become so serious. She’d just wanted some pizza.

The staff room was empty when they returned. Nilesy gave her a slightly confused look.

“I guess Fiona left. I’m going to check that Zoey and Teep are still around,” Kim said, “Don’t go anywhere.” She didn’t need the last member of her group disappearing on her as well.

She placed a box down on the table and then walked quickly back along the corridor. There was no noise coming from the editors’ room, but that didn’t mean much if Teep and Zoey were having a conversation since they’d be signing. She peeked through a crack in the door, but the room was empty. Even their bags were gone. Kim looked around the room in surprise. It seemed like they had really gone home, but why would they have just left without saying anything? She went back to the staff room and gave Nilesy a shrug.

“Looks like they’ve left,” she told him.

“Oh,” Nilesy said, looking around at the mountains of pizza.

Kim shrugged, “Don’t let it go to waste.” She broke open a box and pulled out a slice of pizza. Nilesy hesitated, then grinned at her and broke open another box for himself. Kim was relieved as they managed to turn what could have been an awkward situation into a fun one when they soon found themselves having a long discussion about Star Trek. Fortunately Nilesy was easy to talk to once you got to know him a little bit.

A little while later, she was stuffed full after eating most of a pizza. Nilesy ate a bit more, but he was also defeated by the amount of food they had set before them. There was almost one and a half pizzas still sitting there uneaten. The thought of uneaten pizza being wasted was a deeply sad image to Kim.

“Such a waste,” Nilesy lamented. Having reached the point where it was clear that neither of them were going to be eating anymore, he asked her, “Are you leaving now?”

“Nah, I think I’m going to sit here for a while and digest,” Kim said, sinking down in her chair. She’d eaten a bit too much. She felt a little bit nauseous, truth be told, but it felt like it was worth it for the delicious, delicious pizza.

Nilesy nodded, then slowly dragged himself to his feet. “I’m going to tidy up my stuff and head out. Cheers for the help and the chat.”

“Thanks for the pizza Nilesy, you’re a star,” Kim told him as he left. She sat there for a few minutes, wondering what she was going to do with all this rubbish once she felt up to walking around again.

“Mmm, pizza,” said an excited voice from the door. Kim looked up as Duncan walked over to where she was sprawled in her chair. He was wearing a checkered shirt with the top few buttons loose, showing his white t-shirt underneath and his glasses were slightly askew as usual. “That’s an awfully big dinner you’re having there, Kim.”

“It’s not all for me!” she protested, levering herself up into a more upright position.

“It isn’t? So I can have some? Score,” Duncan grinned, grabbing a slice and taking a big bite.

“Hey!” Kim said, “That doesn’t mean you can just- oh whatever.” Duncan took another large bite of pizza. She didn’t really care, it was better Duncan ate it than for it to go to waste.

“It’s a bit cold,” he complained.

Kim gave him a look, “If you want hot pizza then buy your own.”

“Nah, it’s alright,” Duncan said, grabbing another slice and looking quite content even if he said he was dissatisfied.

Kim lightly snorted at him, leaning back in her chair. She knew she ought to head home soon or else she was genuinely going to be at risk of falling asleep at the wheel of her car. As she looked at Duncan though, she realised this was the perfect opportunity to corner him on a few questions she’d been confused about Yogtowers and all it’s anomalies. Teutron had told her that Duncan had been here the longest out of the artists, so surely he had to know a bit about this place? She sat up straight in her chair, suddenly feeling more awake again.

“Hey Duncan?” she asked, looking at him intently.

“Yea- what?” he asked, changing tone when he noticed she was acting more seriously.

“You’ve been working at Yogtowers for a while now, right?”

Duncan nodded, finishing his second slice of pizza. “Yeah, I’ve been here forever.”

“So what’s up with all the weird stuff that goes on around here?”

Duncan shrugged, “Weird stuff? That just comes with working for a production company. Lots of creative people under one roof. We don’t take things too seriously.”

Kim rolled her eyes, feeling frustrated. She was too tired to be playing games. “No, come on, you know what I mean. The anomalies around here. The weird things on the server level? The ‘multilevel filing system’? Hannah’s frickin’ magical tower? Are you following me?”

“Oh, you’ve been in Hannah’s tower? It’s very nice, isn’t it?”

He got up and walked over to the fridge, pulling out a small bottle of cider. Kim felt like pulling her hair out. “‘It’s very nice’!? What kind of response is that?” she demanded, “There’s like actual magic going here or something and you just think it’s ‘nice’?”

Duncan took a long drink of cider, leaning casually against the kitchen counter. Kim had to twist around in her seat to look at him. He was considering what to tell her. The truth would be a good start. “It’s not magic,” he said eventually, “It’s science. I like science.”

“Well, what kind of science?” Kim questioned.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, then laughed aloud at the look of barely contained fury on Kim’s face. “I never said I was good at science. I’m an artist, not a tech.”

Kim sighed, the tension and frustration leaving her as she accepted that her search for answers from Duncan was completely pointless and she was probably not going to progress much further tonight. Finding answers in this place was much harder than she’d originally thought. Then again, if it had been easy, Teep probably would have found out long ago.

Duncan came back over to her, placing his bottle down on the table. “Look, if you really want to know more about it, you need to go talk to William Strife and Ridgedog. They understand this stuff. Strife was the one who made the multilevel filing system in the first place.”

Kim pouted, “But I already spoke to them! That was how I found out that the entire server level was infested with chickens!”

Duncan let out a slight chuckle, looking off into the middle distance as if he was thinking of a memory, “Heh, Clucky.”

“Are you saying there’s more they can tell me?” Kim asked him.

“Probably more than anyone else you can talk to,” Duncan nodded, “If you want to find out how it works.”

Kim sighed, “Fine. I don’t know why everyone around here has to be so goddamn mysterious though.”

“I’m not mysterious, I’m just forgetful,” Duncan smiled innocently.

“Sure you are,” Kim muttered, watching him with suspicion. Feeling like she had exhausted that route of enquiry, she asked him a more light hearted question instead, “How come you’re still here so late on a Friday?”

He sat back down next to her, one arm draped over the back of the chair. “I took a nap in the audio studio and forgot to set an alarm,” he admitted, “Only woke up when Parv dropped a box of cables on my head.”

Kim shook her head at how casually he said that, as if it was normal. She guessed it was, compared to Hannah’s living arrangements in the office, but it was still foreign to Kim. The editors were reasonably professional, despite the long lunch breaks. She couldn’t imagine wandering off around the office to take a nap during work hours. Mind you, there had been one or two people half-asleep in the staff room earlier that day. Maybe the editors only remained professional because they had Colin to kick them into shape. Kim didn’t doubt that Ravs would take frequent naps if nobody checked up on him.

“It’s alright for some,” she said, “I just spent all afternoon doing someone else’s work for them.”

“That’s your own fault,” Duncan said, putting his hands behind his head, “Don’t do other people’s work for them.”

Kim was about to argue with him, but she changed her mind and shut her mouth again. He had a point. Even if he wasn’t right to suggest that she shouldn’t help other people, she could hardly volunteer then complain as if it was forced upon her.

“Some of us just like to help our friends instead of sleeping on the job,” she said instead. Kim’s assertiveness varied a lot depending on who she was dealing with - some people she stood strongly against, while some made her seem like a pushover - but for some reason Duncan seemed to draw out her argumentative side. Not because she thought she was right, but, in a strange way, she didn’t want to lose to him.

“You could do all my work too, if you want to help out your friends some more,” Duncan suggested cheerfully, “I could use some more sleep. I’ve been staying up too much playing Kerbal Space Program.”

Kim just shook her head and grinned at him, “Well I can’t draw, so you’re going to have to miss out on your beauty sleep, sunshine.”

“Aw, it’s easy,” Duncan assured her, “You could totally do it.”

“Nah, I really couldn’t, mate.”

Kim checked her watch and saw that it was after six o’clock. Geez, six already. It was going to be late by the time she drove home. At least she’d eaten already, because she couldn’t be bothered cooking, she just wanted to fall into bed.

“I’m going home,” she told Duncan, “Are you coming or do you have any more naps to take first?”

“Coming to your home? Why Kim, I hardly know you,” he said, his jovial expression indicating that she wasn’t to take him seriously. Kim picked up her drink and took a sip to hide her smile. She was kind of glad that Duncan had just called them friends a minute ago, in a roundabout fashion. He was a special one - he was probably stranger than Zoey, who Kim had considered the office kook when they first met - but she found herself growing fond of him all the same. He swung between spaced out and innocent to making dirty jokes. Although Kim didn’t know him very well, she got the feeling that he was someone she’d never grow bored of.

“Don’t push your luck,” she told him, getting to her feet. She picked up the now empty pizza boxes and folded them up before sticking them into the garbage bin. When she turned back around, Duncan was standing up and towering over her as usual.

“Why do you have to be so obnoxiously tall?” she asked as they walked down the corridor together.

“Obnoxiously?” Duncan asked in a hurt voice, that Kim was 99 percent sure he was putting on, “I’m not obnoxiously tall. I’m… _gracefully_ tall.”

“Graceful? I don’t think you’ll be in the ballet any time soon,” Kim smiled, “Depends how much you like the tights.”

“No comment,” Duncan said, looking over her head. The image of Duncan in ballet tights floated through Kim’s mind, deeply disturbing her soul.

“On second thought, I’d like to petition that you are never, ever, allowed to wear tights in public,” Kim added.

“So I can still wear them in private?” he asked in a sincere voice.

“Ew,” Kim complained, giving Duncan a little shove as the lift doors opened to the ground floor.

“Hey, you started it,” Duncan protested. “Don’t go there if you can’t handle it.”

“Whatever,” said Kim flippantly. She held the front door open and gestured, “Ladies first.”

“That’s sexist,” Duncan said. Kim shrugged. Duncan walked out the door anyway. It was already dark outside, despite it not being too late in the evening, and it was cold and raining to boot. Stupid British winters. Kim’s car was one of the last in the car park and she noticed Duncan start to set off in the opposite direction.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” she said, running after him, “You aren’t walking, are you?”

It was Duncan’s turn to shrug, “I generally find it easier than crawling.”

Kim shook her head, “You’ll catch your death out here. Come on, I’ll drive you home.”

“It’s not that far, really Kim,” Duncan said, but Kim was having none of it. The longer that Duncan tried to argue, the wetter she was going to get from the rain.

“I won’t take no for an answer!” she insisted, turning back towards her car and unlocking the door. For a moment she thought Duncan was going to continue walking in the rain anyway, but then the passenger door opened and Duncan squeezed in.

“How small is this car?” he asked incredulously as he folded his legs under the dashboard.

“It’s perfectly fine!” Kim said heatedly, “You just need to put the seat back.” She pulled a catch under the seat and Duncan suddenly shot back about a foot.

“Eh, thanks,” he said, rubbing his head where it had bounced off the headrest.

“I couldn’t just send you off into the night like that. What if you got hit by lightning?”

Duncan laughed, “I mean, I think that’s unlikely. There’s a lot of tall buildings around here.”

“Hmph, you said you were bad at science, what do you know?” Kim asked, looking over her shoulder as she reversed out of her space.

“I know that much!” Duncan pointed out, “But thanks for the ride.”

Kim indicted and turned, following Duncan’s instructions as he relayed them to her. He hadn’t lied to her, it really wasn’t all that far, but still far enough that he would have been soaked if he tried to walk home in the rain. He hadn’t even brought a coat! A few minutes after leaving Yogtowers, they pulled up in front of a nice block of red-brick flats beside the river. They were more modern than Kim’s house, but she liked having the extra space over a flat. Duncan thanked her again as he got out of the car and hurried up to the front door. The rain was still pouring down. When he was gone, Kim pulled away from the kerb and found her way back to the main road that would lead her home. In the dark miserable rain, her tiredness had set in again. It was a huge relief when she finally got home to simply get changed, brush her teeth and fall into bed.

 

* * *

  
  


When she arrived on Monday, Zoey and Teep were already in work and things seemed almost normal. Kim didn’t want to bring up the events of Friday evening, but she thought that Zoey seemed a little less bubbly than usual, even for her usual tired pre-coffee state. She’d painted her nail black at some point as well, which Kim took as some kind of girly sign that things weren’t all okay with her usually bright coworker. Maybe she was just reading too much into the situation. The work they’d delayed during last week’s project was still sitting waiting for them, so Kim didn’t have much time to dwell on the matter. She certainly couldn’t find time to go back to the server level again to talk to Will Strife or Ridgedog as Duncan had recommended.

After her mid-morning coffee, Kim could definitely tell that Zoey wasn’t her usual self. The coffee break had only made her more awake, but she wasn’t any happier than she had appeared first thing in the morning. Not wanting to bother Zoey, Kim opened her messenger and typed a message to Teep instead.

 **Nanosounds:** Hey Teep.

 **Tee:** Hi Kim

 **Nanosounds:** Is Zoey ok?

The chat box showed the little dots that indicated that Teep was typing for quite a long time. When he eventually answered, his message was only short.

 **Tee:** It’s quite normal for her condition.

Her condition? Did he mean her anxiety? Because she’d always had that and Kim hadn’t seen her like this before. Maybe it was worse because Friday had triggered it, but Kim would’ve hoped that she would have felt a bit better by now.

 **Nanosounds:** Her condition?

 **Tee:** Love. I hear it’s quite incurable. Sad really.

Kim smiled behind her computer screen. He was joking.

 **Tee:** Sorry for skipping out on Friday.

 **Nanosounds:** It’s ok

 **Tee:** No, I am really sorry. I was looking forward to that pizza.

Kim shook her head. Despite Teep’s jokes, her mind was still lingering on Zoey. She didn’t think that there was anything she could do. As Teep had said, love was a bit of an incurable thing. Only time would make it fade. Unless Zoey and Fiona could just get together, then she’d be happy, but Kim couldn’t just magically make two people fall in love and she was worried that if she meddled again then it’d just go wrong. She’d tried to make them talk to each other once before and it hadn’t really helped.

 **Nanosounds:** Is there anything we can do?

 **Teep:** /shrug

 **Nanosounds:** I guess not

 **Teep:** Maybe it’ll sort itself out in time.

 **Kim:** Maybe.

It wasn’t a very satisfactory solution, but it seemed like the only one for now. Before she had time to linger on the situation, Colin caught their attention.

“I need someone to run up to Rythian and someone to go down to the server level,” Colin said, “I’m having a bit of trouble accessing his audio files.”

Simultaneously, Ravs and Kim burst out, “I’ll go to-” with Ravs adding “Rythian!” and Kim ending, “the server level!” They exchanged embarrassed looks. Colin shrugged, looking nonplussed, “Whatever, you can both go then.” They left together and stood waiting for the lift.

“What’s so special about the server level?” Ravs asked her.

“I just needed to ask the guys down there a couple of questions,” Kim said defensively, “Anyway, I could ask you the same thing about Rythian.”

“Nothing,” Ravs said, slightly stubbornly. Kim guessed that, Ravs being Ravs, he was just going to jump on any chance to skive off of his work for a while. When the lift opened, it was going up, so Kim had to wait for it to go up and then come back down before she could go down to Level Two.

The great steel door was a little more familiar now and she pressed the button for the buzzer without fearing that she was going to break everything.

“Hey guys,” she said into the microphone, “It’s Kim here.”

She waited patiently, but there was no reply. Maybe they weren’t in? But that seemed unlikely, these guys practically lived here. They even had their own mini staff room down here. Maybe they hadn’t heard the ring. She pushed the buzzer again, just in case.

After a few moments more, Strife appeared on the little camera, looking a little red and sweaty, with his shirt a bit unkempt. “Hi Kim, how can I help you?” he asked her politely.

“Am- Am I interrupting something?” Kim asked, a little taken aback. He looked like he had just run ten laps of the building.

“What? No!” he squawked, thinking that Kim was jumping to conclusions, “We’ve just been having a bit of trouble. It’s fine now.”

“Can I come in?” Kim asked.

Will hesitated, then nodded. The door swung open and he was there on the other side. Immediately Kim’s eyes were drawn to the large sword that he had strapped across his waist.

“Is that a sword!?” she demanded, pointing it out as she crossed the threshold. Will looked down and seemed shocked to see that he was wearing it, as if it had appeared there of its own accord.

“Might be,” Will said, in a poor attempt to recover.

“William Strife, why are you wearing a sword and why do you look like you’ve been running a marathon?” Kim asked, extremely suspicious.

It took a few moments, but Will came up with an excuse. “...LARPing?”

Kim gave him a stern look and Will couldn’t meet her eyes. “LARPing?” she asked him, “Indoors. During work. With a sword. Alone.”

“I’m a nerd?” he suggested helpfully.

“You’re a liar,” she corrected him, “Come on, tell me the truth Strife. Nobody in this damn building seems capable of it. You guys gave me part of an explanation before. Tell me the rest now!”

Will shuffled his feet, looking at the floor. He looked like a child caught in some form of mischief.

“I’m not going to just drop it,” Kim said, crossing her arms stubbornly.

Will sighed, shrugging and finally looking up at her, “It’s another one of those anomalies, alright? But it’s not quite as benign as the filing system. Just… try not to freak out.”

“Ok…” Kim said, feeling apprehensive. It wasn’t as ‘benign’? What the hell did that mean? That it was dangerous? “Where’s Ridge?” she asked.

“He’s… fighting them.”

“Right…?” Kim prompted. She had the feeling that Strife wasn’t talking about the chickens she had seen before. If that didn’t sound ominous, she didn’t know what did. “Fighting _what_ exactly?” Something that required a sword apparently.

“Do you remember when I said that each level has its own properties and anomalies?” Will asked.

Kim nodded. When she had first visited the server level, Will and Ridge had explained that the weird things she had been seeing were real and that they varied from level to level of Yogtowers. The server level, apparently, had the ability to become overrun with chickens, but maybe that was not all.

“Well, we’re on Level Two. And Level Two is full of apparitions.”

Kim felt the hair stand up on the back of her neck, “Apparitions? But apparitions aren’t real, right?”

Will quirked his head slightly, “Well, no, they aren’t. But that doesn’t mean they can’t hurt you.”

Kim gulped. “I see.” She took an involuntary step backwards, “If Ridgedog is fighting them, shouldn’t you be helping him?”

Will gave her a smile, “I am.”

He held out a hand to her. Kim reached out to him, but when she touched his hand, her hand passed through the ghostly flesh. She let out a shriek and grabbed her hand back in horror. Will chuckled. “It’s okay, you can go. I get that apparitions aren’t for everyone. We make sure they don’t escape.”

Finding her resolve, Kim put some steel in her backbone, “Hey, I’m not afraid. I’m definitely not afraid of a few little things that don’t exist.”

Will quirked an eyebrow at her. He didn’t say anything, but it was obvious that he was questioning her. Kim rankled, “What, because I’m a woman? I’m not afraid of anything that you aren’t afraid of.”

Strife just looked amused. He drew his sword, which was pale electric blue and didn’t seem to be made of any material that Kim had ever seen before. It had a very soft sheen to it and seemed deadly sharp. “Not at all. But you’ve never fought a thing in your life. You wouldn’t even know how to use one of these properly.”

“I’ve done a bit of material arts,” Kim said feebly, but he wasn’t wrong. She had no training and, despite her stubbornness, she wasn’t sure that she had any desire to fight angry spectres. “I could learn if I had one,” she insisted.

“You’ll get one if you’re supposed to get one,” Will shrugged, “We never asked for ours. They just appeared one day.”

Kim didn’t know what to say to that. Was she supposed to ask the benevolent spirit of the second level for a nice sword? That seemed stupid. But at this point, she had learned to stop questioning the reality of the situation. Hannah’s tower had broken her ability to doubt. Now Kim accepted that all this was real, but she still wanted to understand _why._

Strife twisted his head to the left, “You should go. There’s something coming.”

Kim felt panic rising in her, “What kind of something?”

Strife narrowed his gaze, “It’s small, but you should go. This isn’t kid’s play.”

“I’m not a kid,” Kim asserted with surprising calm, while her heart sang and her brain screamed at her to leave. She wasn’t sure what had taken her, but she had seen the sword and she wanted one too.

“I’m not joking Kim,” Will said, “Go. I shouldn’t have let you in when there was still apparitions about. Don’t make me regret it.”

“I don’t want to go,” Kim said stubbornly. Strife sighed and gave up, holding his sword up in a defensive position and moving himself between Kim and whatever it was that was coming their way. Kim tried to back away, but she realised that she was paralysed with something between exhilaration and terror. The great steel door closed behind her.

“It’s the safety mechanism,” Strife cursed, “Shuts whenever an apparition gets too close. You can’t leave now.”

Kim instantly regretted her choice to stay. She didn’t know what had come over her. She just hadn’t wanted to appear weak, and maybe she’d had difficulty believing that she could actually get hurt, but now that seemed like an all too likely outcome. Will was standing there as if he knew exactly what he was doing, with a dark concentration that would have terrified Kim if it had been focused on her. In comparison, what did she had to defend herself? Nothing at all.

A deep growl drifted towards her on the still air. It sounded like a dog, a large dog, but more concerningly, it sounded like it was coming from more than three dimensions. The attack came so swiftly that Kim could barely register the large black shape, much less have time to react to it, but Will was so quick that his sword tore a streak across the beast’s shoulder and it was beaten back. Bright, white blood ran from the end of his sword, like beads of light dripping to the floor. The dog circled around for a second attack, but this time Kim heard it coming. Will met this second attack with another blow, but the dog fell awkwardly, ducking under the next stroke and skittering forward on the ground towards Kim. When it could regain its foothold it darted forward and knocking Kim to the floor. She screamed, raising her fists and then striking out with her hands defiantly, hitting the creature in the nose. Unlike the apparition of Will, the dog had a definite shape and weight to it. The beast seemed confused and when Kim drew back her hand again, something started to materialise in her hand. The beast reared up, baring its teeth for a deadly strike, but then Strife was there, whipping his sword around and deep into the creature’s neck. The dog shuddered and went limp, falling to the side, with bright white spreading across the floor. When Kim looked closer she saw it wasn’t blood at all, but an endless string of ‘1’ and ‘0’ repeated over and over and over again.

Strife looked at her with genuine anger in his eyes, “Well, it looks like you got what you wanted.”

Kim followed his gaze to the floor beside her, where it lay. She had dropped it when the beast had died, but there it lay, glowing with a deep purple sheen that reflected the glowing binary that ran from the apparition’s corpse.

“Is that mine?” she asked, picking it up with the care that she might have used to hold a holy artifact. She glanced at Will, who looked like he was still getting his temper under control.

“I guess so.”

She admired it for a few moments. When she got to her feet, she realised that a sheath had materialised at her waist without her even noticing. It seemed to weigh nothing at all. She slid the sword into place with a satisfying click.

Kim looked at Will with something resembling remorse, “I’m sorry Will, I should have gone. I don’t know what came over me.”

Strife breathed out a deep sigh, “It’s ok. This stuff sometimes affects people weirdly. Just… listen to me in the future, alright?”

The body of the apparition creature was fading away to the nothingness it had been created from and, as Kim watched, the apparition of Strife began to do the same.

“Wait, where are you going?” she asked, but he did not reply and then he was gone. The door was still closed and Kim didn’t know how to get out. She also didn’t know what to do with this sword and, small a matter as it now seemed, she also hadn’t had a chance to mention the problem that Colin had sent her down here to fix.

“Kim! You stupid…”

Kim spun around to see Ridgedog stomping angrily towards her, with Will trailing slightly behind. She raised a hand in greeting, but Ridgedog gripped her by both shoulders and shook her, “You idiot! Strife might feel in a forgiving mood, but I’m not! You could have been killed down here! You think I want to have to deal with that?”

“Okay, okay, stop that,” Will said, disengaging Ridge. “It’s fine. It all worked out.”

Ridge huffed, turning his back, “Whatever. It was dumb as all hell.”

Will just shook his head. Kim felt slightly disorientated by the shaking, although she was quite glad for the physical contact as it confirmed that this was actually the real Ridge and Strife.

“Anyway, what were you thinking, letting her in during an apparition spell?” Ridge demanded from Strife.

“I know, it’s my fault. We were just fighting the last one, I didn’t think one might have got around us like that.”

“Hmph,” Ridge huffed again, “You’re awfully stupid for a man that’s so smart.”

“Sorry,” Kim apologised, mostly for making Ridge upset.

Ridge waved aside her apology, suddenly over it, “Never mind that. You got a sword. You can fight now. Can I see it?”

Kim felt a little weird handing over her sword. It was a little hard to describe, but it felt personal. Nevertheless, she drew it again and passed it over to Ridge. He examined it carefully, then passed it back.

“Nice,” he commented, “This is mine.” He drew his sword, which was slightly longer than Kim’s and was a dark burnished copper. He put it away once she’d had a look.

“I can’t fight,” she said, shaking her head, “I was just talking before. I did a few years of karate when I was, about, ten? I can’t fight.”

“You have a sword!” Ridgedog said cheerfully, “We’ll teach you!”

“But- it’s scary!” Kim said.

“You weren’t so scared a few minute ago,” Will pointed out, looking quite amused, “Ridge is right. You were given a sword. If you want to learn, we’ll teach you.”

“But- but-” Kim had run out of reasons to object, “This is madness!”

Will shrugged, “Probably.”

Ridge grinned, “We try not to think about it.”

Kim ran a hand through her hair, not quite sure what to say. When she looked up again, she felt a drop of excitement break through her rational fear. “So… you’ll teach me?”


	5. Level Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim starts to come into her own at Yogtowers, learning to deal with the anomalies on the server level. She speaks to Fiona, despite her personal vow to avoid meddling in the affairs of her coworkers. Lunch with Hannah and Duncan sparks Kim's interest in discovering what happened to Sips, and Kim has a surprise meeting with 'the Talent'.

The next two weeks passed in a blur. Almost every evening after work Kim went to the server level instead of going home, where Ridgedog and Strife taught her how to fight. She wasn’t sure why they cared so much and she didn’t know why she was so eager to fight, but she had been given a gift and she didn’t want to waste that. In a strange sense it felt like taking on a new identity, like a superhero. Spiderman wouldn’t be a hero if he’d been bitten by the spider then got too scared to do anything, would he? For their part, Ridge and Strife seemed to have co opted her as a member of their secret club. Kim wondered how many other people even knew about the apparitions down here. The server level had turned into an entirely different world for her, and the longer that she spent here, the more that she felt a part of it. After a few days, she could feel the presence of the apparitions when they were nearby. For the most part, Ridge and Strife didn’t need any extra help, but they told her they would call her if they needed her. Fortunately, the sword she had been gifted turned out to be as ethereal as the apparitions and it simply dissipated once she stepped through the great, round, steel door that was the entrance to the server level, reappearing when she returned.

Another separate world was that of Hannah’s tower. After her initial visit, Kim had returned to visit Hannah a few times. It was so easy to stop by for an extended break since time moved differently there. She could go and spend two hours chilling in the tower and return to the editors’ office after what appeared to the others like no more than a bathroom break. Kim found that she actually enjoyed Hannah’s company a great deal. She fell into the routine of cooking with Hannah in the tower, then enjoying the food she had made with her normal group of friends down in the staff room at lunch. Other than the appreciable improvement in the quality of her lunches, nobody suspected a thing. She felt like she was becoming irrevocably bound up in the mysteries of Yogtowers, but Kim didn’t regret a second of it. Every day she worked here, she fell a little more in love with the place.

The only blip on her horizon was Zoey. Although she had recovered slightly (at least she was no longer breaking out the black nail polish), Zoey hadn’t been her usual bubbly self in days. Zoey had asked Teep, but even he seemed at a bit of a loss, suggesting they wait it out. If she was really upset for embarrassing herself in front of Fiona, she was taking it pretty hard. Not for the first time, Kim was thankful that the closest feeling she had to love was watching something with Benedict Cumberbatch in it. For the most part, love seemed to suck real hard. Kim had hoped that there was something she could do to help one of the best friends she had made here at Yogtowers, but as the days passed it seemed that all she could do was follow Teep’s advice and wait.

Kim finally felt that she had settled in. She had a routine, she was into her stride, and she could put names to faces of most of the people in the office now. The oddities that had initially panicked her now gave her a sense of confidence as she had worked to master them, particularly fighting down in the server level with Ridge and Strife. Just over two weeks after she had first discovered the apparitions, she’d just finished training with the pair when Ridge slapped her on the shoulder.

“You know what?” he said with a grin, “I think you’re about ready.”

“Eh!?” Kim exclaimed, “But I feel like I’ve hardly started. I’m not athletic like you guys.”

Will and Ridge looked at each other and then burst into laughter.

“Kim, I’m a nerd who sits in front of a computer for over eight hours a day,” Will said with a smile, “And I haven’t played sports since high school basketball. Whatever skills we have here, they come from more than just us. You’ll feel it when you get into a real fight.”

“How else do you think you’ve come so far in just a few weeks?” Ridge added.

Kim blushed slightly. “I dunno, I just thought I was good,” she mumbled.

Will seemed to take pity on her. “Don’t worry about it,” he assured her, “It’ll come naturally to you with time. We’ve just taught you all we can. You’ll need to practice on real creatures from now on.”

“Does fighting deadly apparitions really count as practice?” Kim questioned, “I think practice is when it isn’t the real thing.”

Ridge just shrugged again. Kim shook her head. She was grateful to both of them for helping her get this far, but sometimes she thought they were awfully blasé. Maybe they’d just been here long enough that the strange feeling of fearlessness that had briefly infected her when she first got her sword was affecting them.

“Well, thanks for getting me this far,” she said.

“We’ll call you if we ever need you,” Strife said, “We’ll send you a memo through the Multi-Level Filing System. Phone signal isn’t too good down here.”

“I don’t even know how that works,” Kim protested.

“Yeah, but _it_ knows how it works and that’s the main thing,” Strife assured her, as if that made any sense, “Our messages will find you, don’t you worry about that.”

A lot of these things that these guys said made zero sense to Kim, but that came with them each being a tech genius while she was a tech scrub. Video games, a bit of editing and photoshop, and basic computing was about her limit. Duncan had been right to tell her that they could tell her more about how the anomalies worked than anyone else; unfortunately, what he had failed to mention was that their explanations were nonsensical to anyone who didn’t have a firm grasp - and possibly an advanced degree - on quantum mechanics. Will had tried to dumb it down as much as he could, talking about energy and movement of particles and waves through the eleven dimensions, which confused Kim a lot because she had thought there were only three. He got as far as Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and how it was impossible to tell both the velocity and location of subatomic particles before Kim told him to stop. From the little she could grasp, it all had something to do with particles existing in more than one place at once and planes of reality… In the end, it didn’t matter that she couldn’t grasp all of the science, because neither Ridgedog or Will Strife could answer the one question that really mattered: _why_.

“We think we know how it works, but we don’t know why,” Ridge had told her when she had finally managed to harass them into giving her a straight answer. “For some reason, something around here causes reality to change. Sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.”

Kim had eventually abandoned this as another useless line of enquiry. Now she really was stumped. She was fairly confident that Duncan still had something that he wasn’t telling her, but she didn’t know how best to try and trick it out of him. She was also had a feeling that Hannah might know more too, but maybe it was something that Hannah herself didn’t realise was important. Kim refused to believe that she could have lived in that tower for all this time and not know a single thing about the anomalies. Not to mention she was dating the leader of the Yogscast, the elusive Lewis Brindley, and if there was one thing that everyone around here did agree on, it was that the higher-ups always knew a lot more than they let on.

After finishing up with her final practice with Will and Ridgedog, Kim headed back upstairs. Her dark, glossy, purple sword faded back into nothingness once she stepped beyond the doors to the server level. She missed the comforting weight at her hip and the feeling of invincibility it gave her, but it did avoid awkward questions and this way she could never lose it.

She had only planned to go and get her things from the editors’ room where she had left them, but on her way out of the door, she decided to pick up a bottle of water from the staff room for the drive home. Leaping around with a sword had left her thirsty, funnily enough, and she’d forgotten to get a drink in Strife and Ridgedog’s mini-kitchen downstairs.

At first she thought the staff room was empty, which wasn’t unusual for the time of night, but she had to do a double-take as she realised someone was lying stretched out on the sofa with a Nintendo DS. It was Fiona, kitted out in her chef’s clothing. Kim hadn’t seen her for days and had wondered if Fiona had been avoiding the staff room at the times she knew the editors would be there.

“Hi Fiona,” Kim said cheerfully, “Long time, no see.”

Fiona blinked in surprise, then sat up on the sofa, apparently not having noticed Kim when she first walked in. She must have been too intent on her game. Putting the DS down on the coffee table, she nodded to Kim, “Hey there.”

“How come you’re here so late?” Kim asked.

“Oh, you know, just working,” Fiona said, fidgeting with the cuffs of her shirt, “They’re shooting late tonight so I’m covering the dinner shift. It’s not bad, I’m getting overtime.”

Kim nodded, grabbing her bottle out of the fridge. She unscrewed the cap and took a gulp of water before wandering over to the sofa and leaning on the arm. Although she knew it was best not to outright meddle - for example, by announcing Zoey’s love to Fiona - she was curious enough to test the waters and try and get a sense of what Fiona was thinking.

“Why are you staying so late?” Fiona asked in return.

“I was down with the tech guys. They’ve been teaching me some stuff. They’re awfully clever,” Kim said, carefully picking her words so that she wasn’t revealing anything, without outright lying.

“Oh,” Fiona nodded, “I don’t know much about computers really.”

“Me neither. I’m trying to learn to help out Zoey,” Kim said. That was more of a blatant lie, but she had to introduce her co-worker into the conversation somehow.

“She’s having trouble?” Fiona questioned. Kim tried to gauge whether she appeared more interested now that Zoey had been mentioned. It was hard to tell.

“She’s been feeling a bit down recently, so I thought maybe I could learn some cool trick that would cheer her up,” Kim said, “But it’s more complicated than I thought I would be.” Well, all of that was true, as long as it wasn’t related to computers…

“Is she?” Fiona said, showing definite concern. But a normal level of concern or a more-than-friends level of concern? Kim cursed herself internally. This kind of stuff was what normal girls had learned to do in the school yard while she was busy playing Zelda at home. The girls in her classes had always been talking about who fancied who and when people were giving ‘signals’. Kim was no better at picking up on that stuff now than she had been back then, whether it related to her or to anyone else. If it wasn’t for her friends looking out for her in the past, she’d probably have never had a boyfriend in her life. Which partially explained why she’d been so terminally single since she moved away to Bristol.

“I’m sure it’s nothing serious,” Kim said cheerfully, “But she’s usually so optimistic and I miss it.”

Fiona nodded seriously. “She’s always happy. I hope she isn’t hung up on anything silly.”

Kim examined these words in great detail. Did Fiona know that Zoey was ‘hung up’ on her? Or were her words just general and Kim was reading into it too much? Kim felt like she was probably reading into everything too much right now.

“I don’t know, but I wish she’d tell me. Things are just so much easier when people tell each other things, you know? I think half the problems in the world would be solved if people could just be honest with each other.” The irony that she was saying that while attempting to deceive Fiona was not lost on Kim, but she was trying to stop herself from physically patting herself on the back. If that wasn’t a hint to Fiona that she should spill any possible feelings, Kim didn’t know what was.

Fiona looked thoughtful, “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“Anyway, I’m going to go,” Kim said, getting to her feet. She felt like she had done about as much as possible and wanted to bail before she said something really dumb and ruined everything, “I hope we’ll see you at lunch soon.”

Fiona nodded and Kim walked to the door. She’d almost left when Fiona spoke again.

“Hey, Kim?”

Kim looked back towards Fiona, who was still sitting on the sofa, twisted around to face the door. “Yeah?”

Fiona was silent for a moment, searching for the right words to say. Then she spoke, “I usually find when I take a risk, it never works out the way I hoped it would. Have you ever done something stupid and have it turn out good in the end?”

Kim thought back to all the things that she’d done recently that her brain had screamed ‘risk’ at her the whole way through: going for an interview at her dream company when she wasn’t sure if she was ready; moving to Bristol all on her own; climbing the stairs to a mysterious tower in another world; staying in a place of danger when someone had already told her to go...

“It kind of feels like that’s all I’m doing recently,” Kim said sincerely, “And I’m really glad I did.”

Fiona nodded, Kim smiled at her, then they parted ways. Kim did a small fist-pump in the corridor. She had no proof that Fiona was talking about Zoey, but when they’d just been talking about her… Well, Kim wasn’t a bitter old cynic quite yet. There was a million and one things that could still so very easily go wrong, but all great things in life come with a risk. She was holding on hope for something more.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, Kim left the editors’ office at about 11 o’clock and went up to Level Eight in the lift. The path up to Hannah’s tower was familiar to Kim now, although the steps up the tower were still a chore. She encouraged herself with the thought that she was going to have killer legs if she walked up here everyday. It didn’t help that Kim was too short to take the stairs two at a time.

The pair of them had got into the routine of cooking the morning now and so Hannah was usually ready for her when she arrived. For all the times that Kim had been in the tower, she had never seen anyone else come here (or even heard anyone talk about it), so she was surprised to hear voices as she approached the wooden door at the end of the long corridor which opened up into the main tower hall. She cracked open the door a little bit and saw Hannah sitting with Duncan at the dining table. She didn’t even know that they were on speaking terms, although she wasn’t particularly surprised. Everybody seemed to know Duncan.

“Ah, there she is,” Hannah said, once Kim stepped into the room, “Come on, we’ve been waiting for you.”

“Have you?” Kim asked. Mr Owl came swooping down from above to rest gracefully on Kim’s shoulder. She had become used to these surprise dives and barely jumped at all.

“Yeah, Hannah said you were coming to cook so I wanted to as well,” Duncan said with his usual nonchalant smile, “What’re we making?”

Kim walked into the centre of the room, looking up to the ceiling to watch the birds circle for a moment as she usually did. She might have been here a few dozen times, but she was still in awe of the place. When she looked back down, she walked over to the kitchen and lifted a large, square cookbook off of a shelf. Recently Hannah had been on a Thai cooking kick and Kim was happy enough to learn some new recipes. She knew a lot of Malaysian and Chinese recipes, and while Thai was similar, it was a nice change and an opportunity to learn some new meal ideas.

“I figured we could try Pho Bo,” she said, thumping the heavy cookbook down on the table in front of Hannah and Duncan, “It’s not that difficult. Takes a bit of time though.”

Hannah scanned the recipe, looking down the list of ingredients. “Yeah, I have what we need for that, more or less.”

“Looks yummy,” Duncan added, with his usual cheerful unhelpfulness. Kim got the feeling that Duncan was more here for the tasting part than for the cooking part. She didn’t really mind all that much though, as long as he helped out a bit instead of being totally useless.

“We start out with the broth,” Kim said, “That’s the part that takes a while.”

“We cook the beef here,” Duncan said, pointing to a part far down the recipe, “I can do that. I’m good at steak. I will make masterchef-levels of beef steak.”

“Great, that’ll be really useful when we get to that part in three hours,” Hannah said, rolling her eyes slightly.

By delving into the pantry, Kim found everything that they needed. Considering that it was quite a specific recipe, this was quite suspicious. Kim wasn’t sure whether it was just because Hannah had been trying to make Thai food recently or whether the tower was being helpful again. At this point, Kim decided it wasn’t really worth the bother of trying to find out. Food was food.

As they started cooking, Kim and Hannah fell into casual conversation as they usually did. Duncan chipped in from time to time as he read through the cookbook. Occasionally he would point out a recipe that he found particularly enthralling. When he did, Kim noticed that Hannah agreed with him in the tone that one might use towards a slightly slow child. Once she had noticed, Kim had to hide her face every time it happened. She’d thought herself that Duncan was a bit of a special one, but it was funny to see that way Hannah swung between making sarcastic comments and babying him.

While they sat around waiting for the stock to reduce, the conversation turned to the trouble that had been occurring recently between the Talent and the upstairs managers. Kim had heard snippets from Nilesy’s digging downstairs, but she was interested to hear what Hannah and Duncan knew about it and asked them what had been going on.

Hannah tilted her head thoughtfully, “Some money dispute. Those three have their heads up their collective arse. I don’t know why Lewis bothers with them sometimes.”

“Why does he? I mean, how did they even get to be the stars here anyway?” Kim asked, “It doesn’t seem like anyone likes them very much.”

Hannah sighed, “They do make the most money for the station out of any of the performers we have. They might be arseholes, but they are keeping half of our staff in a job.”

“Including me, probably,” Kim said gloomily, “It doesn’t feel great knowing that your job security belongs in the hands of those idiots.”

“They aren’t the highest earners though. Sips is the highest earner that the station’s ever had,” Duncan pointed out, interested enough in the conversation to close the cookbook over.

“Yeah, well he isn’t anymore, is he?” Hannah shrugged.

“Hat Films were just working at some third rate company until they managed to get a spot on one of Sips’ shows,” Duncan said, a twinge of annoyance in his voice, “They weren’t a success until Sips was gone. They shouldn’t forget that.”

“So, wait,” Kim said, trying to clarify something she’d been told in the past, “What happened to Sips? Where did he go? I know it sounds silly, but the people downstairs told me that he just… disappeared…”

There was a slight pause as Hannah and Duncan looked at each other, then back at Kim.

“He did,” Hannah said shortly.

“Just disappeared?” Kim asked incredulously, “One day everything was fine and the next - ‘poof’?”

A look of discomfort came over Duncan’s face as he replied, “Pretty much.”

Kim looked at both of her friends, who’d suddenly become quite dejected. Hannah had started fiddling with the cooker unnecessarily, while Duncan was just staring down at the tabletop. Immediately she felt like an idiot for digging up what was clearly a sensitive subject.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think it was true,” Kim said.

Hannah waved her away, snapping instantly back to her no-nonsense attitude, “No, it’s not your fault. It does sound unbelievable.”

“There’s a museum on the eleventh floor,” Duncan said, not quite as ready to bounce back as Hannah, “A museum of Sips. It sounds a bit morbid…”

“It is morbid,” Hannah interjected, “I don’t like it.”

“Well, it exists,” Duncan shrugged, “If you want to find out more about Sips. He shouldn’t be forgotten.”

Kim filed this away under ‘useful lines of investigation’ and then happily followed Hannah’s lead when she changed the subject to the brighter topic of an upcoming game release. Even while she was speaking about other things, her mind lingered on the topic of Sips. So he really had just disappeared? And there was an entire floor dedicated as a museum to him? It did sound a little bit creepy. Did people ever go there? Did it just collect dust in the dark? Kim resolved to go there sometime soon to try and find out more. Knowing that the anomalies of Yogtowers could take on somewhat sinister forms, like the apparitions on the server level, Kim wasn’t sure what to think about the fact that someone had actually gone missing…

Eventually her thoughts were dismissed by the smell of hot, spicy beef broth. Once the completed dish was simmering away on the hob, Kim got out the heat-proof plastic container that she usually used to carry her lunch away. After cooking with Hannah, she generally packed up her lunch and took it back down to the staffroom to later eat with her fellow editors and whoever else happened to be hanging around. Hannah didn’t mind, since it avoided awkward questions. Duncan, however, was less used to this state of affairs.

“What are you doing?” he asked, “You aren’t taking it away?”

Kim looked at the container and to the Pho on the stove, then back at Duncan, “Yeah, what else could I be doing?”

“But it’ll get cold,” he argued, “Stay and eat with us.”

Kim hovered, “But that’s complicated.”

“How?” Duncan asked, disbelievingly.

“Well, her coworkers might wonder why she’s not eating any lunch later,” Hannah pointed out, “I don’t want everyone knowing about my tower.”

Duncan snorted, “So what? Just tell them you’re not hungry or something. Stay here with us.”

Kim looked at Hannah who just shrugged. Kim sighed violently, “Fine, whatever. I’ll find something else to do at lunch.”

A couple of hours later, Kim finally managed to extract herself from the tower and return to work. In the end she was quite glad that she’d stayed to eat, although it did mean she was a bit late getting back to her work. It was a very strange feeling to go from the late afternoon of Hannah’s tower back to the real world where only ten or fifteen minutes had passed since she’d first left her desk. Strangely though, she didn’t feel particularly tired despite having been up for hours longer than she should have. The tower had an effect beyond time passing faster; Kim had realised that when she worked out that Hannah should have aged beyond her years, having lived so many extra days in the tower than in ‘reality’, but she hadn’t. Kim figured that she could probably attempt to get Strife and Ridgedog to explain this to her as well, but it’d probably go even worse than her last attempt to understand physics, so she didn’t bother.

Despite the break, nobody batted an eye when she returned to the office, with the exception of Teep, who raised one eyebrow questioningly at her. Kim ignored this, but it was harder to ignore the message that pinged up on her computer when she sat down. Teep had this uncanny knack of just _knowing_ things. She wondered if being mute made him more observant or whether it was just an unrelated talent.

 **Tee:** Where were you?

 **Nanosounds:** Just upstairs

 **Tee:** Visiting…?

 **Nanosounds:** I ran into Hannah

 **Tee:** Ah, so you’ve discovered Hannah’s tower already. I knew you’d be good at this. It took me at least two months to find out about that.

Kim sighed in frustration, loudly enough for Colin to glance over at her in concern. “Sorry,” she apologised, putting her head back down as if she was hard at work. She was just frustrated with the feeling that everybody seemed to know more than she did and half of them were pulling her around for their own pleasure. Nobody told her the truth, never, not the full truth, just little bits one piece at a time. She just wanted to know everything!

 **Nanosounds:** Why didn’t you tell me about Hannah’s tower from the start if you already knew about it? You’re the one who suggested I find out about the anomalies!

 **Tee:** Hannah doesn’t like people knowing about her tower.

Kim repressed the urge to sigh again, in case Colin thought she was having a quiet mental break down over Martyn’s latest episode. In truth, she’d also been keeping Hannah’s tower a secret so that the others wouldn’t find out, but that didn’t make Teep’s omission any less annoying. He was the one who’d asked her to investigate!

 **Tee:** You’re doing well! Don’t give up!

 **Nanosounds:** Is there anything else you haven’t told me about that you would like to mention? Gargoyles in the attic? Ghouls in the basement? Aliens on the roof?

 **Tee:** There is no attic or basement. I cannot verify the existance of aliens.

Kim thought he was joking about that, so she decided to leave it be. It seemed like she wasn’t getting any more out of Teep. Time was ticking on, so she focused on her project and spent a couple of hours getting her actual work done.

When lunch rolled around, her coworkers filed out of the room one by one. Colin was the last to leave as usual, but he stopped at the doorway and turned back to Kim.

“Come on Kim, there’s no rush. Don’t work through all of lunch.”

Kim looked up at him and shook her head, “Don’t worry, I won’t. I need to run upstairs for a few minutes, then I’ll come through.”

When Colin had gone, Kim pushed her chair back and walked out of the room, heading for the lift. While she’d been working, she realised the best place to go at lunchtime was the strange Sips’ museum, killing two birds with one stone. When the lift arrived, she pushed the button for the eleventh floor. She’d never been so high up in the building before. The main studio was Level Nine and the elevator only went to Level Thirteen. Kim wasn’t sure what the floors above the main studio contained - Turps’ tour had been a long time ago and he hadn’t taken her above the main studio anyway - but she figured the only floors higher than the museum must belong to the proper co-owners like Lewis Brindley and Simon Lane. She’d never even met them yet, so she wasn’t sure they’d appreciate her just turning up on the higher levels. Still, Duncan hadn’t suggested that she wasn’t allowed into the museum, so she was going to take the chance. After all, she’d fought apparitions downstairs, how could things be much worse up here?

The lift dinged and then opened onto the eleventh floor. A small landing of the same plain white plaster and office carpet from downstairs contained just one set of double doors labelled ‘The Museum’. The glass panels of those doors revealed only darkness behind them. However, Kim didn’t really see any of that, as she was too focused on the extremely tall and somewhat ginger man who had just appeared in front of her.

“Oh, look who it is,” he smiled with gleaming white teeth. Kim was fairly sure the last time she’d seen a grin like that, it had been about to tear out the jugular of an antelope while Richard Attenborough solemnly narrated.

“Oh, hello,” Kim said. Her voice was quite steady, but she’d somehow lost the ability to move. Al Smiffy stepped into the lift and the doors shut behind him. Kim knew she was supposed to leave the lift about five seconds ago, but apparently Smiffy had other plans for her. He pressed the button for Level Ten.

“I was surprised not to hear from you,” Smiffy said, “Not that it really matters.” He was leaning casually against the wall of the lift in his red burgundy t-shirt and beige cords, seemingly nonchalant. Kim wondered how much of that was an act. Smiffy just had this aura of tightly wound energy, like he was about to explode out of his skin at any given moment.

“Why don’t you come see where the Hatters hang out?” he asked when Kim didn’t say anything, “It’s cool. You’ll like it.” No sooner had he said it, did the lift bing and open on to the tenth floor of Yogtowers.

Kim’s eyes widened as she took in the sight before her. The room was expansive and lush, richly decorated in deep red velvet and gold, with exotic plant life at strategically placed locations. A couple of brightly coloured foreign birds perched on branches. Fancy silks hung from the ceiling and at the back of the room, a delicate water feature poured from the wall and into a crystal clear pool with fish swirling around the rocks in the bottom. If Hannah’s tower was like the living quarters of a fairytale princess, then this was a sultan’s harem. The only thing missing were the scantily-clad women. Instead, Chris Trott was reclined on a deep pink, button-backed chaise longue, plucking grapes from a bowl, examining them and eating them one by one, discarding any that displeased him. His ridiculous fur jacket was draped over the back of the chaise longue, and his sunglasses were perched on the top of his head.

“It’s quite something, isn’t it?” Smiffy said, sounding genuinely excited for a moment, before snapping back to his usual bored manner, “Of course, we’re quite used to it. You can get quite used to this when you’re the Yogscast station’s biggest stars.”

Kim realised she’d walked into the room without even noticing, having been too enthralled in the room. No, this was more than a room, this was an entire suite, if the doors leading off elsewhere were anything to go by. This had to be another anomaly, there was no way that this had been legitimately bought and paid for. The station was successful, but the luxury in here was surely beyond anything they could reasonably afford.

“Oh, you brought a visitor,” Trott said languidly, between grapes, “What’s her name?”

“Eh, I’m Kim?” Kim said hopefully. “Kim Richards?” Somehow she felt there wasn’t a high chance of Trott remembering that. From what she had seen, he was very self-involved. She wondered where the third member of the trio was, Ross, the one with the scary eyes.

Trott made a small noncommittal noise, apparently already bored with the conversation. “Why don’t you show her around,” he suggested to Smith, shooing them both away.

“I’ll show you around if you don’t watch your fucking mouth,” Smiffy swore at Trott through gritted teeth. Kim took a half-step back, unsure of this aggression, but Smiffy immediately settled back into his more charming self. It was a hard choice for Kim whether she should just leave right now or stick around to investigate whether there was anything more to where the Hats lived. It might be her only chance to get a good look around. You’ve fought monsters, she told herself, what’s there to be scared of here compared to that? Well, she didn’t know, which was a bit frightening in itself. Most of all, Kim felt the conspicuous lack of a sword.

“You’ll frighten our guest,” Trott said, Smiffy’s words clearly having little effect on him.

“Nah I won’t,” Smiffy said, turning the full force of that gleaming smile on Kim once again. “Here, Quimothy, let me show you around.”

Quimothy? Kim wasn’t sure what that meant, although she had an idea that there might be something insulting about it. Whatever. If Smiffy was going to show her around like she wanted, she could play ball for a little bit.

“This is the lounge,” Smiffy said, gesturing around the room that they were already standing in before pointing out certain features. “Trees, pool, birds, Scrotty-to-Hottie.” Kim had to restrain herself from giggling at the absurd name for Trott. It seemed like Smiffy enjoyed making up meaningless nonsense nicknames for people. Kim followed him to the first door. “Bathroom,” he said, “Nothing special.”

“Nothing special, my butt,” Kim said as she peaked through the door. The shower was a natural waterfall that fell from a ceiling hundreds of feet above, completely out of place in the otherwise modern bathroom. It was, Kim noted with approval, very clean. Crazy physics-defying waterfalls aside, the bathroom actually wasn’t anything special, so they continued around the room.

“This is Trott’s room. Very disturbing. You don’t want to go in there.”

Although she thought that Smiffy was probably joking, she decided to take this advice at face value. It was probably just a room with a bed surrounded by mirrors anyway.

“I’m joking,” Smith clarified, “That’s the swimming pool. Trott doesn’t get a room. We keep him in the closet under the stairs like a boy wizard.”

“I’m not Harry Potter!” Trott protested from the settee.

“Nah, you’re as muggle as they come, mate,” Smiffy said. Kim opened the door and was surprised to find that Smith hadn’t been joking. Behind the door lay a huge open hall that genuinely contained a long, rectangular swimming pool crafted out of what looking like white marble. At the far end of the pool, there was a series of tall diving boards and two water slides that twisted and turned in a hundred different ways. Kim would have given anything to don a swimsuit and jump in for a swim right now. The faint smell of chlorine wafted from the door enticingly.

“It’s not bad. It has a wave machine too,” Smiffy said, shutting the door again. “You can check it out after if you like.” Then he pointed to the next door. “That’s Ross’ room there. Had to have it sound-proofed because of all his screamers.”

“What’s a screamer…?” asked Kim cautiously. Smiffy’s talking just seemed to run ahead of her so she always felt like she was at least half a sentence behind. Turps’ had been bad for that too because he just talked so much and so goddamned fast, but at least what he was saying tended to be fairly straightforward and make sense. Smiffy jumped between topics so quickly that she had to try and figure out what he was referencing before she could even comprehend his actual words.

Smiffy just ignored her question, pulling open the next door, “This is my room. You can see this one because I’m not a total social degenerate like those two?”

“You aren’t?” Kim joked uneasily.

“What, is that what you want? Randy Richards at it again?”

“Uh…” Kim had no idea what to say, but fortunately she didn’t need to say anything since Al Smiffy had opened the door and let her see the interior of the room. It was just as amazing as the rest of the apartment, although in a different way. It stretched out in all directions for much further than she would have expected from the size of the building. Far to her right was an entire shooting range with targets and stacks upon stacks of weapons, most of which she was sure were entirely illegal in the UK. In front of that was a ton of camping and outdoor equipment, camped out on what seemed like a series of outdoor terrains, changing from a Swiss mountainside to a tropical lagoon. To her left, was one of the sweetest gaming rigs she’d ever seen, a full drinks cabinet that stretched across the wall from floor to ceiling, and an extravagant, king size, four post bed with deep purple silk sheets. Directly in front of her was a pair of elegant glass-framed doors that led out onto a large stone balcony. The view from the balcony was magnificent, but it certainly wasn’t Bristol. It looked like something from the beginning of the Lion King.

“So, uh, this is quite an unusual place to live, huh?” she asked Smiffy, not quite sure how to begin without directly asking him how he came to be living in another dimension. She walked into the room and across to the balcony. The air out in this world smelt hot and dusty, like nowhere she’d ever been before.

“You like it?” he asked her in return, following her and leaning his hands on the ledge of the balcony.

“Yeah, sure,” Kim said, a tad dismissively, “I was just wondering how all this is possible.”

Smiffy shrugged, “What does it matter? What matters is that you get to enjoy it.”

Kim frowned slightly, annoyed at his continued attempts to dodge her questions. It didn’t seem like he was going to be useful at all; not that she should have expected any better. Smiffy was good-looking, but he was so overbearing. He had been nice to her so far, but she wasn’t entirely sure why. He certainly didn’t treat anybody else with any respect.

“Well, I should probably go,” she said casually, turning away from the incredible scenery with a hint of regret. It was past time she got back to her work. The Sips museum would have to wait for another day. Smiffy caught her arm as she tried to walk away, preventing her from leaving.

“What’s the rush?” he asked, a frown appearing on his face as well, “You just got here.”

“People will miss me if I’m gone too long,” Kim said, wondering if she should try to break free or if he would just tighten his grip. “Can you let go of me?” she asked steadily, trying to remain calm.

Smiffy made a sound of dismissal and pulled her back as easily as if she was a ragdoll. Kim felt a drop of fear as she realised she’d walked into a situation that was far different to what she had anticipated. She had totally misread what was happening and she’d already stayed for too long. Suddenly she felt so small. Smith was so much bigger than her and they were completely isolated. The only person around was Trott, who was probably too busy looking at himself in the mirror to give a damn what happened in Smiffy’s room.

“Come on, no more games about it. You didn’t come here just to tease me,” he smiled. Kim opened her mouth to object vehemently, but before she could find the words to tell him how little she wanted to be here with him right now, he just leant in and stuck his tongue down her throat. He held her by both wrists, stopping her from trying to throw him off. Kim froze, totally immobilised. His beard was scratchy against her face and she felt like she could barely breathe. Finally, she came to her senses and kicked him in the shin as hard as she could. Smiffy let out a roar of pain, letting go of her and backing off a few steps. Kim let out a slight whimper and grabbed at her foot. It turn like she’d broken her toes.

“What the fuck was that about!?” Smiffy yelled, rubbing his shin, “Filthy little minx, coming in here and playing fucking mind games.”

“I’m not playing games!” Kim screamed at him, “Stay the fuck off of me! I’m leaving!”

She hobbled past him on her sore foot, but he grabbed her around the waist and flung her back.  Kim crashed down onto the floor and into the end of the bed, winding her. Her kick had barely hurt him really, while he was so much stronger that he completely controlled the situation. Maybe if she’d been quicker, if she’d just run… Now Smith was angry and that pent up energy came streaming out of him in a series of violent verbal attacks.

“Shut the fuck up you little _cunt_ ,” he growled at her, “Why do you think you’re here? For a nice visit like we’re _friends_? Did you think we were going to go on a romantic _date_? Stupid little _Quimothy_ , you’re not even pretty, you’re just a _thing_ that I can _fuck_. You think you _matter_? You think big star of the station cares about a stupid worthless little nobody? _Fuck!_ Don’t act like you don’t want it, you’re all the same, you all want it if you think it’ll get you noticed! You wouldn’t have come here if you didn’t want to _fuck!_ ”

Each curse was punctuated by a kick at something in the room. He threw a glass that had been sitting on the sideboard and Kim had to duck it when it smashed against the end of the bed above her head. When Smith got to her, he dragged her up by the wrist as if she weighed nothing at all.

“Fuck off!” she yelled at him, although her voice sounded high and weak in her own head, “Let me go! You can’t just do whatever you want!”

Smiffy’s eyes gleamed and that grin came back, even more dangerous than before. He didn’t look angry anymore, he looked… insane.

“I can do anything I want,” Smith said quietly, “Because nobody’s going to fucking stop me. You got that?” He suddenly reached up and grabbed her head and slammed it against one of the bedposts. The world spun around Kim and she felt like she was about to vomit as pain screeched through her head. Smith was talking but she couldn’t even make out what he was saying over the blood rushing in her ears. He was in control here. Kim felt like a fool, a complete idiot. She’d never thought this could happen, not here. She tried to focus in on what he was saying, because at least if he was talking then he wasn’t doing anything else. But whatever spiteful, horrible things he was saying, they drifted right past her.

Suddenly Smiffy turned away and Kim managed to adjust her sight enough to realise Trott had just come in. She twisted out of Smiffy’s grip and dragged herself up to sway on her feet.

“Just fucking let her go, you can have a million other girls,” Trott was saying. Kim felt a rush of thankfulness, but she was still afraid that Smiffy wouldn’t listen to him.

“Do you want to take her place, Trott? You getting jealous again, Trott? Because I’ll fucking bang you after if you want,” Smiffy threatened through gritted teeth. He had his hands on Kim again, holding her back. She felt like she might be about to pass out as the world spun again.

Then Ross appeared at the door, surveyed the situation for a moment, and pushed Trott aside with such force that the smallest Hat fell down and his sunglasses shattered on the floor. Ross grabbed Kim away from Smith, saying, “Put her down, you _twat_.”

Kim wriggled out from Ross’ hands and backed away from the pair of them. Trott was getting back onto his feet, still blocking the doorway. Kim tried to run, but she swayed on the second step and fell back to the floor.

Ross ignored her, poking his finger into Smiffy’s chest as he railed at him, “Are you trying to fuck up everything we’ve worked for? Everything I’ve worked for? Fuck Trott if you want a struggle fuck, you randy bastard. Don’t make me teach you a lesson.” To Kim’s surprise, despite Smiffy’s aggressive stance, he was cowed by Ross completely. She shrank away from the hands that gripped her arms, but it was just Trott who was actually helping her to her feet.

“Jesus Christ, Smith,” Trott swore softly, “This is a new low.”

The world still passed in and out of focus before Kim’s eyes. She thought she might have a concussion, but she gave zero fucks about anything except getting out of this goddamn room.

“She fucking came on to me!” Smith protested angrily, “Why the fuck would she come here for anything else? All the others were up for it! _Fuck!_ ” He punched the bedpost in a rage, then stalked off down the far side of the room. Kim thought it was over, but then Ross turned to her. He had that same look in his eye, the mad look, but at least there was no lust in his gaze.

“Right, randy Richards,” he spat, “Listen to me. You want to keep your job? You stay silent. We run this fucking station and we make them more money than you’ll see in your miserable little life. Got that? You say a word and I’ll let Smith have you. And you know what? That won’t even be the worst part.” He flicked his wrist and a knife appeared in his hand as if from nowhere. He traced it down her cheek, not to cut her, just to feel the cold steel on her skin. Kim shrank back, but Trott was still holding her.

“Go home,” Ross advised her, flicking the knife back into the cuff of his sleeve. “You can tell your friends you felt ill. Or don’t come back at all, I don’t care. But you breathe a word…” He just let the threat hang in the air.

“Throw her out Trott. Then get back here. Smith has a lesson to learn and you know how I like to give out lessons…”

Kim didn’t resist as Trott led her back to the lift. She wanted to leave more than anything, even if it felt pathetic to be tugged along like a broken marionette. “You can’t let them do that to you,” she said quietly, as Trott called the elevator. She didn’t know exactly what Ross meant by a _lesson_ exactly, but it sounded completely sinister and Trott was looking defeated.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Trott said, not meeting her eye. The lift doors opened and Trott pressed the button for the ground floor before he let her go and stepped back out of the lift. “It’s complicated.”

The doors slid closed. Kim felt like she could breathe for the first time in minutes, but the delayed panic rose in her chest and she was breathing too quickly. She gulped down air in the elevator, leaning doubled over against the wall. When the lift opened she stumbled out of the building and got as far as her car before the panic attack consumed her. When she finally managed to recover, she cried for almost an hour. It was only the thought of seeing others leaving work that made her kick her car into gear and start driving home. She didn’t want to see anybody. She couldn’t bare to look anyone in the eye. She just wanted to get home somehow and roll under a blanket and run from the crumbling mess that her life seemed to have suddenly become.


	6. A Stumble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim tries to recover from the attack by Hat Films and continues to discover things about her new friends.

Kim didn’t return to Yogtowers for over a week. The only reason that she had a job to go back to was that the doctor easily believed that she had been ill when she turned up pale with dark circles under her eyes. Turps let her off with a warning after her week of no contact thanks to the doctor’s letter. That she was the one getting a warning… There was a large part of Kim that wanted to never go back and that was the part of her that kept her in bed for a week, leaving only to take frequent, long showers. However, there was a flame inside her that refused to be extinguished. It demanded that she return, hold her head high and refuse to let herself be beaten down. This was her dream job and she would regret the rest of her life if she just let it go. Besides, there were the friends that she had made, wonderful people that she didn’t want to lose. She was not going to let Al Smiffy and his cronies ruin her life. She was going to return and make sure that one day, she ruined his. Most of all, there were the unsolved mysteries. It was a bit silly, but at the end of the day, it was the mysteries that pulled Kim back. She just couldn’t live without knowing more. It was like reading a crime novel and then throwing it away before the big reveal. It would linger in her mind forever if she didn’t return and get to the bottom of it.

That didn’t make it easy though. Kim returned, but she was quiet and kept to herself. When Zoey asked if she was alright, Kim said she was still feeling a bit ill. As the days rolled on and she didn’t improve, Kim knew her coworkers were concerned about her and ended up avoiding talking to them as much as possible. She didn’t even eat lunch with them anymore. Kim ended up eating lunch alone in the editor’s office. Sad little sandwiches that were nothing compared to the lunches she’d made with Hannah before she’d stopped going to visit Hannah’s tower.

The breaking point came when she was eating alone at the end of the week, sitting at her desk. There was a knock at the door and Kim felt an irrational panic at being alone with an unknown person at the door. What if it was Hat Films? She tried to tell herself that they wouldn’t have bothered to knock.

It wasn’t any member of Hat Films that stuck their head around the door, but the familiar fuzzy blonde head of Duncan. He gave her a big smile when he saw her and edged into the room with one hand behind his back. Kim looked at him suspiciously, wondering what he was hiding.

“Hi Kim,” Duncan said, “I heard you were ill, so I got you a present.” He pulled his hidden arm forward to reveal a small box of chocolates, wrapped neatly with a bow. He held them out to her with a grin, “Treats always make me feel better, so I hope you like them.”

Kim took them wordlessly. Duncan’s smile faltered, seeing Kim’s neutral expression.

“Is everything okay?” he asked cautiously, “Do you not like chocolate?”

Kim felt like she might cry. She didn’t deserve these and she didn’t deserve him. He’d been so thoughtful and she couldn’t even pull herself together.

“Please leave,” she said quietly.

“What?” Duncan said in shock, as if he didn’t think he’d heard her properly.

“Please, just go,” Kim said, her voice quivering on the verge of tears.

Duncan opened his mouth to speak, his hurt clearly showing in his face, but he thought better of it and just turned around and left. Kim felt like she’d just stomped on a puppy. With a sinking feeling, she realised that if she kept pushing people away, she may as well have given up and left. Even as she told herself she was being self-destructive, she just felt like she didn’t know how to stop.

Somehow she managed to contain her feelings. She slipped the chocolates into her bottom desk drawer out of sight and tried to put them out of her mind. She threw the rest of her lunch in the bin, suddenly not hungry anymore. She threw herself into her work for the rest of the afternoon, not even acknowledging the others when they returned from lunch. A few minutes after they returned, her messenger app pinged with a message from Teep.

 **Tee:** When you’re ready to talk, we’re ready to listen.

Kim stopped her work and spend a few minutes trying to contain herself. She just had to speak, it should be so easy, but she’d never been good at revealing her feelings. Ever since she was young, she just preferred to keep her problems to herself. Kim knew that she’d get over this in time; she was just worried how many friends she’d have left at the end of it.

She still hadn’t replied to Teep’s message when there was another short rap on the door. There was no pause this time, but Hannah walked right in. Kim froze slightly when she looked up and Hannah looked her in the eye. Suddenly Kim felt like she’d been caught redhanded. Hannah looked like she meant business and Kim knew with a sinking feeling that if anyone was going to drag the truth out of her, it would be Hannah.

“Hi Colin,” Hannah said with a smile and a voice that was all sunshine and roses, “Do you mind if I borrow Kim for a while? Might be the rest of the afternoon, I’m afraid.”

Colin looked vaguely annoyed, but then he conceded in the face of Hannah, who appeared to be pulling rank, “Yeah, of course you can. I’ll finish up the Children’s Hour editing.”

“Wonderful,” Hannah smiled, with a sweetness that somehow made Kim more uneasy. Hannah turned her eyes to Kim, who tried to resist, but then dragged herself to her sorry feet. She followed Hannah out of the room, staring at her own feet the entire time. They didn’t speak the entire ride in the elevator, or the whole way up the staircase to Hannah’s tower. In fact, Hannah didn’t say a word until she’d settled in her kitchen and turned the kettle on. Only then did she turn back to Kim, gesture to a seat at the table and say, “Why don’t you sit down?”

Kim sat down silently, before slowly meeting Hannah’s gaze. She felt like a naughty child at the headmistress’ office, a feeling that increased the longer that Hannah silently observed her.

“So,” Hannah finally began, “What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?” Kim asked, even though she knew deep down that trying to play dumb was never going to work.

Hannah quirked an eyebrow at her, “Really? You vanish in the middle of the day, are gone for over a week and when you return you won’t speak a word to anyone. I had Duncan up here trying to work out how he’d mortally offended you. I had Teep and Zoey messaging me asking if I knew what was wrong. So don’t tell me that nothing happened.”

Kim sighed and put her head in her hands. All the words she needed to make all of this go away were sitting right on her tongue, but she just couldn’t seem to spit them out. Hannah seemed content to wait it out. She had told Colin that she’d need Kim for the rest of the afternoon - in the way that time passed in the tower, that meant Hannah was prepared to wait a _long_ time.

“I… had a run in… with Hat Films,” Kim eventually breathed out, when she could bear Hannah’s gaze no longer.

Hannah leant forward, both her hands on the table and looking at Kim closely, “What happened Kim? What did they do?”

“N-nothing. Nothing really. They just shouted at me. And threatened me.” Kim took a deep breath, “Al Smiffy thought I was a cheap shag and he got angry when I told him otherwise.”

Hannah breathed out a long chain of curses under her breath. “What else?” she asked, “Was there anything else?”

Kim shook her head, “Not really. He shoved me, knocked me on the head. But that was all.”

“That was _all_?” Hannah asked, not believing how Kim was downplaying everything, “That’s bloody enough. I’ll have their fucking heads for this. I’m sick enough of them as it is. If they are going to make this an unsafe environment for the women who work here, well…” Hannah broke off into a series of violent mumblings under her breath, but Kim interrupted her.

“Hannah, they’ll make sure I lose my job if anything happens. I’ve only been here a few months and they’re the stars of the station. I’m screwed.”

Hannah laughed mirthlessly, “I’d like to see them try! Once I’m through with Lewis they’ll be the stars of eff all.”

Kim buried her face in her hands again, “I know it sounds crazy, but I just don’t want this to be a thing. I’ve been acting stupid, but that’s my fault. If you go to Lewis, they’ll have to look into things and I don’t have any proof… I just don’t want to be _that girl_.”

“What girl?” demanded Hannah, “You didn’t do anything wrong!”

“I don’t want to be a victim!” Kim burst out angrily, looking up at Hannah, “I won’t! I refuse to be some stupid girl who got victimised by a creep. I don’t want that to be the reason that people know me around here. And I really, really don’t want to lose this job.”

“Well that won’t happen,” Hannah said strongly, “I guarantee it. If nothing else, you’ll keep your job.” She wrung her hands tightly. “I hate the idea of them just getting away with this.”

“Neither do I, really,” Kim sighed, “But please, just don’t go to Lewis about it. I just want to forget that this ever happened.”

Hannah let out a long, deep breath and the tension went out of her shoulders. “Fine,” she agreed, “Okay. I won’t hunt them down like the scum they are, but only for you.”

“Thank you,” Kim said. Somewhere inside her, she felt a sense of calm be restored to her troubled heart. She didn’t feel normal, but she was closer than she had been for a little while. Just being able to admit what had happened to a friend and have them listen and care… it meant everything in the world, really. Hannah hadn’t dismissed her or thought she was lying. That had been one of Kim’s worst fears.

“If this happens again though…” Hannah said in a tone of warning.

“I don’t think it will,” Kim replied quickly, “Ross was really angry about it. And Smith listens to Ross.”

“Hmph,” Hannah sniffed, but she let the subject drop.

The two of them made dinner, talked about TV shows and stayed up late into the night. Kim ended up crashing on Hannah’s bed and woke up to the smell of fresh eggs and toast in the morning. For the first time in a while, Kim had an appetite for real food and wolfed everything down hungrily enough to be given seconds. As the morning passed, Kim finally broached a subject that had been bubbling in the back of her mind since the night before.

“Was Duncan really upset by what I said?” Kim asked Hannah as she lounged on Hannah’s sofa.

“Yesterday? I don’t know. He didn’t seem distraught, but it’s unusual for him to be upset about anything…” Hannah remarked thoughtfully, “He was worried he’d done something wrong.”

Kim shook her head, “I’m a royal ass, you know?”

Hannah shrugged, “Just say you’re sorry. I’m sure he’ll forgive you.”

Kim nodded. She didn’t want to be forgiven, she wanted to take it back so that she’d never said it. Unfortunately, even in Hannah’s magical tower out of time, going back in time was still impossible. An honest apology was the best that she could do.

When Kim finally left an hour or two later, it was very disorientating to return to her office at the end of her normal working day, as if she hadn’t been gone an entire day and night. Ravs and Zoey had already left, but Kim was able to give Teep a reassuring smile. Hopefully he would understand that things were going to be better now. Kim wondered about trying to find Duncan now, but she decided that she’d rather just go home and be done with this place for a while.

On her way down, she ran into the pudgy man with glasses and a faintly ginger beard who she had met once before when she was leaving the office. “Good evening,” he said in a friendly voice as she walked into the elevator. Kim wondered who he was. He was already in the elevator, so it seemed like he worked further up the building. However, his slightly scruffy clothing didn’t really give away anything about who he was. Maybe he was one of the writers? He looked a bit like a writer. Maybe a comedy writer. He did have a jovial look about him.

Curiosity overcame Kim and she asked him, “What department are you from?”

The man smiled and then gave a slight shrug, “Oh, I don’t do anything that important. I just water the plants mostly.” He glanced her up and down and added, “You’re the most recent editor that was hired, aren’t you?”

Kim nodded, surprised that he knew who she was. She also wondered what kind of job ‘watering the plants’ was. A janitor?

They stepped out of the lift together and parted ways at the main doors. “Goodnight, Mandrew,” the man said cheerfully, as he walked off into the night.

“Goodnight,” Kim replied, wondering what the hell a ‘Mandrew’ was. It appeared that the janitor was a little crazy, but he seemed friendly enough. Kim got in her car and drove home, singing along to her favourite songs the whole journey home. It felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

 

* * *

 

Kim arrived at work on Monday in a much better mood than she had been in since the Hat Films incident two weeks before. Although none of them mentioned it, she could tell that her coworkers were relieved to see her in brighter spirits. She wasn’t the only one in the office to have cheered up either. Kim hadn’t thought about it the previous week due to dwelling on her own predicament, but Zoey had gone back to her normal cheerful self as well. The reason for this became clear when they arrived on Monday morning to find Zoey’s desk adorned with a single rose and a dozen papercraft stars in all the colours of the rainbow.

“Who’s been leaving you presents?” Kim asked, clustered around Zoey’s desk with Zoey, Ravs and Teep.

“It’s the same person who left the last ones,” Ravs declared.

“We don’t know who that is though,” Zoey said.

“Last ones?” Kim questioned.

“There were two days when you were off,” Ravs explained, “Someone left things on Zoey’s desk for her. One day they left a soppy card and then a couple of days later it was a lot of little petal things.”

“It wasn’t a soppy card,” Zoey interjected, “It was cool. And really sweet.”

Teep signed to Zoey, who blushed a little. Teep signed more assertively and Zoey rolled her eyes.

“He wants me to show you,” Zoey explained, before reaching into her desk drawer. She pulled out a card that appeared to be home made. It was a big Pikachu, coloured in and cut out of card. Kim opened it up and inside it simply read, ‘Dear Zoey, I Pika-choose you’. Kim grinned despite herself at the cheesy pun. There was no name signed at the bottom or on the back of the card.

“Well, whoever it was knows you pretty well,” Kim said, handing the card back to Zoey, “But they haven’t said at all who it is?”

Zoey shook her head. Kim had her suspicions and she knew who Zoey wanted it to be. The chances that it could be anyone else? Well, Zoey was quite popular and she was a pretty girl, but it seemed a coincidence that anyone would start sending her secret messages right now other than Fiona. She’d asked Kim if she thought it was worth taking a risk… This wasn’t necessarily what Kim had in mind, but Zoey seemed to like it. Kim just hoped that all this would end in a satisfactory conclusion. Please may it be Fiona and not come other crazy person in this weird office…

The morning passed quickly and before Kim knew it, it was time for lunch. The editors went along to the staff room together, but when they arrived Ravs had somehow vanished. Kim found this curious, but it wasn’t a mystery that she was interested in solving right now. Not when the answer was probably ‘He went to Greggs’. There was nobody else in the staff room, so it was an unusually quiet lunch.

Kim was still deciding how to investigate the disappearance of Sips. She knew one of the best places to go would be his museum, but she was a bit scared to go up there. It might be irrational, but that was where Smiffy had found her and she just couldn’t stand the thought of going there right now. What if Smiffy was there again? And, now that she thought about it, what had he been doing there in the first place?

The only other thing she could think to do in the meantime was to find someone who was prepared to talk about Sips and maybe give her some more information. Clearly Hannah and Duncan had known him, but Kim didn’t want to upset them more than necessary. She hadn’t even been able to apologise to Duncan yet after her harsh words to him on Friday.

“Do you guys know much about Sips?” she asked them in a lull in the conversation.

Colin just shrugged and shook his head. Zoey frowned and shook her head as well.

“I know of him, he’s kind of a legend you know. But I didn’t really know him at all. I hadn’t been here long as an editor and he was… y’know, he was Sips,” Zoey explained. She looked over at Teep and began signing to him.

“Teep says he spoke to him once,” Zoey translated as Teep’s hands moved in the air. “But if you want to know about Sips, you need to talk to Sjin.” Zoey nodded enthusiastically at this suggestion, “Yeah, that’s right. Nobody knows Sips better than Sjin.”

Kim was quite surprised at this. She knew the Nilesy’s co-researcher had connections to upstairs, but she had assumed that Sips’ closest friend would have been somebody higher up. But that was stupid, when she thought about it more closely. After all, Hannah had been at Yogtowers since almost the very beginning and she’d become one of Kim’s best friends, so clearly not everybody was caught up in the hierarchy. She made a mental note to try and corner Sjin at some point soon. She just hoped that he wouldn’t find talking about his old friend too upsetting, but she feared that he probably would.

They had just started talking about an upcoming schedule change when Ravs rushed into the staff room with an expression on his face that Kim could only describe as ‘gleeful’.

“What’s going on?” Zoey questioned in amazement at Ravs’ excitement. Considering that Ravs generally considered smiling as ‘too much effort’, this was an unusual display of joy from him.

“Someone finally gave Hat Films a taste of their own medicine,” he said joyfully, fumbling his phone out of his pocket and swiping the screen. “Someone totally lamped Al Smiffy.”

Kim looked on with the others as Ravs opened his picture folder and pressed the first image. It was a little blurry, but it was clearly Al Smiffy in one of the upstairs corridors with a wide patch of purple bruising across his cheekbone and the corner of his left eye. He looked livid.

“It wasn’t you, was it Ravs?” asked Colin, who was a bit posh and seemed to consider Ravs a ticking time-bomb purely by his nature of being a bit rough around the edges and, worse, Glaswegian. Ravs just scoffed at the idea.

“I fuckin’ wish. There was a rumour going around that something was up because he hasn’t turned up to recordings today, so I convinced Rythian to come with me to check it out. What a punch, looks painful,” Ravs leant back in his chair, his wide grin clearly showing how much sympathy he felt.

“People shouldn’t hit each other,” Zoey said solemnly, “But in this case we could make an exception?”

Kim burst out laughing, loud enough that the others gave her a funny look, but she couldn’t care less. She didn’t know who had hit Smiffy, but she thought she might just want to kiss them. Was this Hannah’s way of getting revenge without making it ‘a big thing’ and going to Lewis? Surely she hadn’t hit Smiffy herself though? Kim didn’t care, the idea of Smiffy sprawled out on the ground at the hands of anyone was a satisfying enough image for her. She hoped he felt really, really fucking small. She hoped he knew people were laughing at him. Then there might be a little bit of justice. Just a little.

Before the end of her lunch, she told Colin that she had to go and run an errand. The picture must have put him in a good mood, because he didn’t even nag her to not take too long.

She made her way up a floor, wondering where Duncan would be at this time of the day. Considering his disposition towards taking naps in random areas of the building, trying to track down Duncan was never an easy task, but Kim figured that the artists’ room would probably be a good start. If he wasn’t there, at least one of them might know where he had gone.

Fortunately, when she knocked on the door and peeked her head around the door, Duncan was actually sitting at his desk, head down and busily drawing onto a large sheet of paper clipped to a drawing board. He had a pencil tucked behind his ear and his tongue slightly poking out of his mouth as he concentrated. Kim wasn’t sure she’d ever seen such an adorable human being in her life.

“What’s up?” asked a voice, distracting her from her study of Duncan. She looked around to Harry, the lead artist in the studio, who was looking at her questioningly.

“Oh, sorry, I just wanted to speak to Duncan,” Kim said. Duncan’s head snapped up when she spoke, although he quickly looked back down at his work again.

Harry nodded, “Sure.”

Duncan placed his pencil down carefully on his desk and got to his feet. He was wearing a dark hoodie and light blue jeans, an odd inverse to Kim who was wearing a pale blue hoodie and dark navy jeans herself. He didn’t meet her gaze until they were out in the hall and he had closed the door behind him.

“What do you need?” he asked cautiously. Kim was relieved to see that he didn’t seem too mad at her, although you could never be too sure with Duncan. He was always relaxed. Certainly he was guarded.

“I just wanted to talk to you,” she said.

Duncan looked around, then said, “Let’s go somewhere better. Nobody will be in the small studio.” He pointed along the hall to Studio Two. Kim nodded. They walked along the corridor and went into the little studio space that was generally used for livestreams. It was quite bare; just a couple of computers, some tables and chairs, microphones, cameras and green screen walls. Kim sat up on one of the tables, while Duncan stayed standing, crossing his arms across his chest defensively. They sat and stood in silence for a moment, but Duncan spoke up.

“Are you doing okay?”

Kim shook her head, “Never mind about me, that’s not why I’m here. I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I acted like an asshole to you the other day when you were just trying to be nice to me. I feel like such a bitch.”

Duncan’s face dropped and he uncrossed his arms, holding his hands out towards her, “Don’t be-” He took a breath and rephrased what he was trying to say, “Look, you snapped a bit, but it doesn’t really matter. Don’t feel bad about yourself.”

Kim looked up to him with a wince, “You sure? You gave me a gift and I didn’t even say thank you.”

Duncan shrugged, an easy smile coming back to his face, “I’ll consider that my thank you.”

Kim sighed, “You’re the best.”

“Oh yeah?” Duncan said, grinning, “You must be sorry. I don’t think I’ll be hearing that again.”

Kim found herself grinning as well, giving Duncan a shove on the arm, “Hmrph, not when you’re such an ass about it.”

“I thought you were sorry!” Duncan protested, but he was only joking around and they both knew it. With relief, Kim knew she hadn’t spoiled a thing between them. Had Hannah told Duncan what had happened? Kim wasn’t entirely sure if his forgiveness was a result of his easygoing nature or because he knew the truth, but there was no way to ask without bringing up an uncomfortable subject, so she just let it go. She would prefer for him not to know because she didn’t want him imagining her as a weak person - how could she threaten to kick his ass then? - but there were worse people she could imagine finding out.

“You know,” Duncan said, his voice suddenly dropping a few notes into a more serious tone, “I really admire you.”

Kim felt herself blushing red despite her attempts not to. “What do you mean?” she asked.

Duncan shrugged with his hands in his pockets, as casually as if he was talking about the weather. “I just think you are admirable. You’re a pretty cool person.”

“Oh,” Kim didn’t really know what to say, but she could feel herself getting hot under the collar, “Thanks.” She had a big smile on her face that she couldn’t control even though she knew she was probably grinning like an idiot. “You’re a pretty cool person yourself, Duncan Jones.”

“Yeah, I am,” Duncan agreed immodestly, earning him a look from Kim that set them both off laughing. “Yeah, yeah, okay,” he said, shaking his head.

Kim glanced at her watch and sighed. “I think I need to go back to work,” she said, genuinely sorry to be leaving.

“Aw, you don’t want to skive more? I thought that’s what we were doing?” Duncan said, giving her his best puppy eyes. Kim definitely felt a heartstring twang.

“Stop that!” she told him sternly, “I’ve missed way too much work recently to go missing now. Do you want me to get fired?”

Duncan shook his head, “No, I don’t want that.” He let out an over-dramatic sigh, “Fine, I guess I’ll get back to work, if you’re going to make me.” He turned on the puppy eyes again, just in case, but Kim just shook her head and turned away. Duncan just let out a laugh at her.

“Okay, okay, I won’t keep you,” he said, “Go on. Enjoy your editing.”

Kim headed back downstairs with a light heart. She didn’t think she’d ever had a better lunch break. When she got back to the editors’ room the others were already working, but Kim was in such a good mood that she still got all of her work finished before them. She turned in her files to Colin a good half hour before the end of the day and he told her she was free to go. Normally she might have hung around to get some extra work done, but she had another target in mind. If she managed to pull this one off, this might qualify as one of her most productive days ever.

She wandered along the corridor, bypassing the staff room, to the other end of the fifth floor where the researchers lived. Nilesy and Sjin’s office was quite small compared to a lot of the other offices in the building, but it was more than spacious enough for the two of them. As luck would have it, she found the room inhabited only by Sjin, who was typing away into a document and consulting an open book on his desk.

“Hey Sjin?” she said, tapping on the door to get his attention.

Sjin looked up with a start, not expecting company. He gave Kim a smile, “Oh, hey Kim. How can I help you?”

“Are you busy?” Kim asked, “I wanted to talk to you, but I can come back another time.”

Sjin shook his head, swivelling his chair around towards her, “No, it’s fine, it can wait. What’s the matter?”

Kim nodded and walked further into the room, sitting up on the desk between Sjin and Nilesy’s workstations. “Is Nilesy around?” she asked.

Sjin shook his head, “No, he’s gone home.”

“Good,” Kim said, wondering how best to go about asking Sjin. In the end, she decided to just be direct. “I wanted to ask you about Sips. If that’s okay.”

The surprise showed in Sjin’s face as he obviously wasn’t expecting this to be the line of conversation, but he recovered quickly. “Yeah, I can talk about that. It’s okay. What- what did you want to know about Sips?”

Kim rubbed the back of her head, still choosing her words carefully. It didn’t take a genius to know that talking about someone who disappeared was a sensitive topic. “I just… wanted to know about him. Obviously I’m quite new and he was such a big part of the station back in the day. Everybody who knew him loved him. I guess I just hoped to know more and people said you knew him better than anybody.”

Sjin nodded, considering his own words, “Yeah, that’s right. I did know Sips. Sips was…” He tailed off, clearly having difficulty trying to find the right words. “Sips was just a star. You knew it from the moment you met him. He walked in and he drew all the oxygen out of the room. But he was a class act, so you’d never know he was already famous unless you saw him on air. Unlike _some people_ ,” Sjin added, leaving little doubt to whom he was referring. Kim nodded, encouraging him to continue.

“Everyone did love him, but he loved them right back. He made you feel like the most special person in the world.” A light pink colour tinged Sjin’s cheeks. Suddenly, Kim was struck with a suspicion of which she was so certain that she blurted it out loud.

“You loved him.” Immediately she turned red herself at her outburst. Sjin turned a dark shade of red as well, but he held his chin up high.

“Yeah, I did. I’m not ashamed to admit it. He was like nobody else. I’d have followed him anywhere. I think any of us would have done.”

“So what happened?” Kim asked. If Sjin was going to get upset, that was probably the question that would provoke him, but she just had to know. The strange compulsion that demanded she discover the secrets of Yogtowers commanded her onwards.

Sjin sighed and spread his hands. “Who knows? I know he wouldn’t have gone willingly. He loved his job, his life here. He wouldn’t have left it. He wouldn’t have left… me.”

Kim’s heart broke a little when she saw the tears in Sjin’s eyes, but he blinked and they were gone. “I’m sorry,” he apologised, “It’s not the easiest thing to talk about. But I don’t want anyone to pretend like he was never here. I think that’s the worst thing we could do.”

“Like the museum?” she asked. Obviously the others here shared both Sjin’s admiration and his desire to remember Sips. Suddenly the museum made a whole lot more sense.

Sjin was dismissive however, giving a grunt of disgust, “A museum. What, they got some pictures of him, some of his things, a few clips from his best shows? I’ve never gone there. That’s not remembering. Remembering is something you do in your heart.”

Kim supposed she could understand that. People reacted to loss in different ways. She was just glad she had never had the pain of losing someone so close to her as Sjin had.

“So it still remains a mystery?” she asked. Sjin just gave her a nod.

“The only thing I know is that he’s not dead,” Sjin said confidently, “I would know. I would _know_. He’s alive.”

Kim nodded. Although she felt like she had learned a lot in some ways, ultimately she was still as far from learning why Sips had actually disappeared. Most of all though, she was just glad that somebody was being completely honest with her for the first time, and she thanked Sjin for it. Sjin just shook his head.

“I wouldn’t lie about this. Sips saw something in me that nobody else ever has. I’m just trying to live up to the man he thought I was.”

Kim was filled with the overwhelming urge to give Sjin a hug, but she thought he probably wouldn’t appreciate it. They both paused as they heard approaching footsteps. The fact that whoever it was seemed to have started talking about halfway down the corridor indicated it was Turps before they could even make out his voice.

“Hi! Oh, hello Kim! Good to see some cross-department collaboration!” Turps said optimistically, “Sjin, we really need your help. Hat Films are having some sort of problem and Al Smiffy just refuses to film. I’ve tried to work it out, but we’re running seriously short on time. Do you think you could fill in? You’re the only person we can depend on to get this done.”

Sjin looked at his computer and the half-finished task he had been working on, but then he nodded in the affirmative.

“Ah, great! You’re a pro Sjin, you really are,” Turps complemented him, “You never let me down!”

“Maybe you really can make me a pro,” Sjin suggested as he got to his feet.

“Thanks Sjin,” Kim said as he left with Turps.

“It’s okay,” Sjin said, giving her a wan smile.

Kim sat in the office for a few minutes, wiping a couple of tears away from her eyes as she thought over what Sjin had just told her. It was just so _sad_. Sjin was so dignified and so honest, but his hurt was clear to the world. Kim had only ever spoke to him in light-hearted conversations at the lunch table. She had no idea that so much lay underneath.

Eventually she left, making her way back to the elevator. It had been a strange day, a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. She was waiting on the lift reaching her floor when she made out voices in the staff room. At first she was unconcerned, but she realised with a jolt that she was hearing Zoey and Fiona. Maybe the rollercoaster wasn’t quite over yet. Feeling a bit like a peeping tom, she crept closer on her toes, too curious to just ignore what was going on.

“...just wanted you to know,” Fiona said. There was silence. What had she just said? Why wasn’t Zoey responding? Kim bit her lip, waiting for someone to speak. Eventually Zoey broke the quiet.

“I just don’t really understand.”

“What’s not to understand?”

Zoey sounded exasperated and a little emotional when she replied, “You! I mean… you’re beautiful! You-” Her voice cut off. Kim waited with bated breath, not daring to risk looking around the door in case they saw her. What was happening?

“You kissed me,” Zoey said, her voice completely incredulous. Kim kind of wanted to facepalm for the obviousness of the statement, yet she was glad for the commentary in this situation.

“You’re a wonderful person,” Fiona said, “But you’re so hard on yourself. I like you. Actually, I think you’re pretty rad. I want to get to know you. So trust me, yeah?”

There was a small hesitation, then Zoey said, “Well, you do have good taste.” Kim could practically see the cheeky smile playing across Zoey’s lips.

“Let me take you to dinner,” Fiona offered, “I’ll show you. You’re my dream girl.”

Zoey nervously giggled in an unusually girly fashion and then they were silent. Were they snogging again? Well, Kim couldn’t exactly tell them to get a room when she was the one eavesdropping. She took that as her cue to leave and tiptoed off before she could get caught listening to people’s private conversations like a creep. She kept a stupid grin on her face the entire way home.

Over the next few days, a few changes took place at Yogtowers. The first was Fiona turning up at the editors’ room at lunch and asking Zoey, “You ready to go for lunch, babe?” which made Kim squee internally. She’d never seen Zoey with a bigger grin on her face. The second was that Sjin was officially promoted to being a full time content producer. Kim hoped that this made him one step closer to his goal being the man Sips had seen inside of him. Nevertheless, the result was that Kim finally found herself happy at work again. Hat Films could make all the threats that they liked, but she had her friends and they were all doing so well. Their happiness made her happy.


	7. A Little Taste of Revenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonus Chapter: How Smiffy got his black eye

Early on Monday morning, the Hat Films were walking down to the main studio for their first recording of the day. They tended to use the back staircase to go between their pad and the studio, since it was quicker than waiting on the elevator and avoided having to meet anybody else. Trott was yawning into his morning Starbucks, a new pair of sunglasses perched on his nose. Smiffy and Ross had no idea how Trott saw anything when he always insisted on the shades indoors, but then neither of them really cared either. Trott was usually one of the last things on their minds, unless… Trott had a number of talents that the viewers of the Yogscast would never know, but Smiffy and Ross knew them all too well. Hat Films had an odd relationship, even for celebrities. It was a bit of an open secret that their relationship wasn’t entirely platonic, but it was a fact that most people glossed over. They saw Smith take home girls and knew that Trott was rumoured to have a girlfriend and nobody asked questions, which was probably as well, because they wouldn’t have got any answers had they tried. Ross was very careful to manage the image of his co-stars. The rise of Hat Films to stardom was almost entirely due to his careful management.

Today’s shoot was for one of their weekly shows, a completely mundane affair. The Hats had been arguing with upper management about money recently, but this show wasn’t involved in that dispute. There should have been no problems whatsoever. However, when Hat Films descended the stairs to the main studio, they found the doors barred by two entirely unpleasant interruptions into their day.

“What do you want?” Smiffy asked angrily.

Hannah and Duncan stood in front of the door. Hannah had her hands on her hips, while Duncan had his arms crossed. Neither of them looked like they had any plans to move. These two were troublesome. They might not be all that important, but they had connections. Connections that could be very bothersome to Hat Films if they chose to be. Ross wasn’t sure who would win in an outright fight between the two groups, but it wasn’t something he wanted to put to the test. He wasn’t sure that Hat Films would win. Ross didn’t care to gamble on things that he hadn’t prearranged in his own favour.

“We want to talk to you,” Hannah said, her voice icy cold, “In particular, Smith.”

Ross surveyed the pair. It wasn’t hard to figure out why they were here, so he cut to the chase. “What’d that bitch tell you?”

Duncan’s arms flew to his sides, his fists bunched up in fists. “You watch what you’re saying.”

“There are other ways to find out things in Yogtowers than by being told,” Hannah said with surprising calm, “As you well know.”

“Been looking in your _fucking_ magic ball, have you?” Smith demanded through gritted teeth. “Up in your witch tower?”

“Shut up,” Hannah told him bluntly, “Do you want me to go tell Lewis that you’ve been trying to sexually assault his employees? You think that’d be hilarious?”

Smith went to retort, but Ross placed a hand on his arm to silence him. “Your proof?” Ross asked.

“I’m sure we can find some,” Duncan replied angrily.

“So, none,” Ross said, calling their bluff, “I thought not. If you had any proof you’d have already gone above our head.”

“You better believe it,” Hannah hissed, “I won’t be happy until you’re out of here.”

“Hmm, maybe it’ll be Lewis who puts _you_ out of here first,” Trott said, callously butting in, “After all, we earn him millions and you’re just his eye candy. His _old_ eye candy. There’s a lot of young, pretty actresses who’d just love a spot on one of the biggest networks around…”

“Oh fuck off, you’re not getting in my head,” Hannah said angrily, “I know Lewis needs me. Can you say the same thing?”

“This is pointless,” Ross said, drawing himself up and attempting to establish an air of superiority. “If you’ll move, we have a shoot to get to and people who are waiting on us. Unlike you, we don’t just lounge around all day and rely on our old connections to bring in a paycheck.”

“Don’t think you’re getting out of this that easily!” Duncan told him, pointing fiercely at Smith, “We’re not just going to stand aside when he hurts our friend.”

“Aw, your little _friend?_ ” Smith said mockingly, stepping closer and getting up in Duncan’s face, “What, did you want to fuck her instead? That little _slut_ would slip into anyone’s bed and you can’t even get her to suck your cock? Or did you actually have feelings for the little _chink_? Did you _wuv_ her?”

For a moment that seemed to stretch out, everyone was frozen, Smiffy grinning maniacally in Duncan’s face. Then the moment shattered with Duncan’s fist slamming into the side of Smiffy’s face. In the following uproar, it took Hannah dragging Duncan in one direction and Ross and Trott pulling Smith out from under Duncan’s fists to separate them. Blood droplets splattered the floor from Duncan’s knuckles and nose, while Smiffy was bleeding freely from a cut along his temple and he was holding a hand over his left eye.

“Fuck you!” Duncan yelled, barely letting Hannah restrain him, “Get the fuck outta here.”

“Oh, I’m so scared,” Smiffy cried mockingly, “You just wait, you’re fucking dead mate! I’ll fuck you up!”

It took Ross throwing Smiffy in a headlock and dragging him back up the stairs before the confrontation ended and Hannah finally felt safe to let go of Duncan, who was shaking all over.

“I’ll fucking kill him,” Duncan muttered under his breath, “I swear to god, I’ll fucking… I’ll fucking kill him…”

Hannah sighed in disgust, “He’s not even worth it. Come on, you’re getting blood everywhere.”

“What- what if he goes for her again?” Duncan asked quietly, running a hand through his light blond hair and leaving a faint trail of blood.

“Then there won’t be enough of him left for you to find,” Hannah said darkly, “I promise you that.”

Duncan relented. The two of them slipped down the stairs, away from the scene of the crime. Neither of them felt like they had achieved justice by any measure of the word, but at least they’d given Hat Films a black eye - literally and metaphorically. Hat Films would know that they weren’t untouchable. Most of all, they knew that if they wanted Kim Richards, there was going to be a fucking fight.

 

 


	8. Deeper and Darker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following Sjin's promotion, Kim agrees to work as a researcher for a few days until his replacement is found. She spends some time with Nilesy, gets her first call from Strife and Ridge, and meets Strippin and Dodger for the first time.

Following Sjin’s promotion, Nilesy had even more work dumped on him than ever. With Turps’ permission, Kim volunteered to help Nilesy by filling Sjin’s position for a few days since, unlike the others, she actually had a bit of experience in research. Kim figured it was either that or having to end up helping Nilesy on the side, the way that she’d been roped into helping him before. At least this way the work was being dealt with before it built up into a horrible paperwork mountain. Plus, it was nice to get a change from editing for once. She’d worked as a magazine journalist a few years back, so it was a bit of a reminder of her past career before she’d moved into video and production.

For his part, Nilesy was a really fun guy to work with. He was constantly talking and joking, usually in that dry sarcastic manner he had, but he was never boring. Sjin had advised her that Nilesy’s favourite nickname was Professor Snape, but Kim was wise enough to understand that this probably wasn’t the case. She did store that information for later in case he decided to wind her up.

“You’ll be working on two projects,” Nilesy told her when she took her place at what had formerly been Sjin’s desk, “The first is YogNews. It’s pretty easy, you just have to find out the last week’s news, which is available pretty much everywhere. The writers do a lot of in-house stuff for it, so you don’t need a ton of stories, they just need a fast turnaround for it. The second thing is something that Rythian has been cooking up. You’ll need to go talk to him about it. He’s a real stickler for accuracy, so good luck with that one.”

Kim pulled her face, “Did you give me your most pain-in-the-ass project so you don’t have to do it?”

“It’s not the _worst_ project,” Nilesy said, then he conceded, “Okay, it’ll be annoying, but I gave you an easy one too. It’s just for a couple of days anyway.”

To her surprise though, working with Rythian wasn’t anywhere near as trying as she had anticipated from Nilesy’s warning. Kim knew he was a nice enough guy from when she’d spent time with him in the staff room. He was, as Nilesy had said, ‘a real stickler for accuracy’, but his passion for his work was enough for Kim to get over that. He clearly had a vision that he wanted to get exactly right and Kim was drawn in enough that she really wanted to help him get to where he wanted to be.

“It’s called Project Blackrock,” Rythian explained to her as they sat up in his office, “It’s a narrative piece. It’s going to be my first video series, so I want to get it right.”

Rythian was busy writing and the research he required was on a surprisingly diverse range of subjects. They shared a google doc where Rythian would write Kim requests throughout the day and she’d respond as soon as she had found out the answer. Everything from the floor plans of ancient castles to modern technical specifications of different audio equipment. Rythian hadn’t gone into great detail on the Blackrock Project - Kim figured it was pretty complex and he was still bringing it all together in his own head - but it seemed to be a mix between a historical drama and high fantasy, acted out in a formatted series. It would be something of a first for the station and would really launch Rythian’s career if he could pull it off, so Kim understood why he was so anxious about it. Up until now he’d almost exclusively worked on audio content for the the station, so writing for video was a bit of a new frontier for him, despite his previous work in video editing.

What surprised Kim through working with Rythian was how close he still was to Zoey, Teep and Ravs. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so surprised when he still often came down to join them for lunch rather than speaking to the other content creators up on the eighth floor. Since Kim had filled Rythian’s old job, she’d never had a chance to see him in the office with them, but it was clear that they went back a long way. Rythian and Zoey had even known each other before they came to work at Yogtowers and he generally hung out with at least one of the gang on most weekends, even if it was just via the internet to play some games. It also turned out that Ravs would sometimes come to eat lunch with Rythian, if Rythian was too busy working to stop for lunch. Kim thought it was a sign of the friendliness of her coworkers that they didn’t like to leave people on their own if they could avoid it. It also solved the mini-mystery of Ravs wandering off half the time - turns out he wasn’t going to Greggs or a secret second job after all.

By the end of her first day, Kim felt quite accomplished in her new temporary role as researcher. She’d successfully found everything that had been required for the latest YogNews script, which would be shooting tomorrow.

“You’ll need to go hang out in the main studio tomorrow morning,” Nilesy explained as they both left for the night, “Take your laptop and chill while they shoot. You’ll need to keep an eye out in case anything new gets announced mid-shoot so that they can do a quick rewrite and fit it in.”

Kim nodded, feeling a little trepidation at the thought of being in the main studio. There was a good chance that Hat Films would be there and she hadn’t seen them since the incident. There was nothing to be nervous about though, she tried to tell herself, there would be so many other people there. They probably wouldn’t even see her. Nevertheless, she could feel the hairs standing up on the back of her neck. Was she really so scared of them?

No, she realised. This wasn’t fear, it was more like… static electricity. She had almost left the building, but she turned back, knowing there was more to this feeling than she realised.

“I left something at the office,” she said to Nilesy, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Oh, okay,” he said, giving her a slight wave as he walked off, “See you!”

Kim turned back and rubbed the back of her neck. She reached out her arm into the air behind her, which felt strange, like it was thicker than usual. The individual hairs of her arm took on end as she reached forward. Then she felt it. She wrapped her hand around a rolled paper scroll that she couldn’t see and pulled it back towards herself. Suddenly the paper tube appeared in mid-air. The Multi-level Filing System… She unrolled it and read the scrawled words:

 

_We need you._

  * _Ridge_




 

Kim stuffed the note into her bag and set off towards the elevator at a run. She jumped through the lift doors just before they slid close and hammered the button for Level Two, tapping her foot in impatience. They said they wouldn’t call her unless they needed her, so whatever was happening, it was trouble. The lift seemed to take an age to climb just one floor, but Kim jumped out once the doors opening. She no longer had to wait on Ridge or Strife answering the round steel door, but hammered the numbers into the keypad herself to gain entry.

Once the door swung open, the phantom sword began to materialise on her hip. Kim drew the shimmering purple blade, carefully making her way into the rows of server banks, turning her head this way and that. She needed to find the others, but she didn’t want to shout unless it alerted something more sinister. A distant roar echoed through the servers as she crept forward on the balls of her feet. Kim snapped her head towards the sound and then quickened her pace to a fast run, but not an outright sprint. She didn’t want to arrive unprepared for what she had to fight. As she approached, the fearsome cries of the beast grew louder, but she could also hear the shouts of Ridge and Strife as they battled, and occasionally the clash of their swords on metal and bone. They sounded like they were being pushed, but nevertheless Kim was relieved. As long as they were fighting, nothing too serious had happened to them.

She turned the corner of a bank of computers when a couple of formless spirits rose up in her face. The cloud-like creatures were weak and Kim cut them in two with one sweep of her sword, barely pausing before she ran on. Behind her they burst like wet balloons filled with liquid light. Work and the rest of Yogtowers already seemed miles away, like she was deep under the ocean and it floated high above on the surface. Once she came here and her sword was in her hand, her mind was clearer than it had been in months. It was exhilarating - addicting. At first she couldn’t work out why Strife and Ridgedog kept coming to work somewhere that could literally kill them, but she had come to understand in time. Danger was addictive. Maybe that was why she’d chosen to come back too.

The next attack came from above in a swarm of ephemeral bats that suddenly lunged down at her head. Kim ducked and rolled, then came up swinging. She had to dodge as they came from every angle, but that was her talent. She wasn’t as strong as Ridgedog or as quick as Will, but she was agile, flexible and presented a small target. By training with them, she had found her own strengths - but now she was having to put them to the test.

She left the last bat flapping uselessly on the ground and ran on. She was close now, no more than a couple of rows away.

“Will! Ridge!” she yelled, letting them know she was almost there.

“Kim! Watch out!” came Ridgedog’s harried reply. Kim glanced behind her, then leapt forward, her sword skidding out of her grip as she tucked and rolled. Behind her, the server banks where she’d just been standing were swept aside by a truly giant creature. It looked like a dinosaur but even more fantastical, like a huge triceratops crossed with one of the behemoth’s from Final Fantasy. Kim froze for a second in awe at the creature that towered ten or eleven feet above her head, but then her instincts took hold of her and she slid across the floor to get her sword, feeling a lot better with its comforting weight in her hands.

The monster let out a shrill shriek, batting away a strike as Ridgedog came leaping over the fallen metal racks like an athlete, his sword swiping ahead of him to be parried by the creature’s metallic claws. Behind him Strife scrambled to keep up, almost falling as he caught his foot under some destroyed electronics, but managing to keep upright.

“Kim!” he exploded with relief, “Nice of you to join us!”

“It’s not exactly a social call!” Kim replied, readying her sword in front of her. The beast seemed to have been disoriented by its fall through the racks of computers, but it had recovered now and was rallying to the attack. Weirdly, for all the feelings running through her right now, she didn’t feel afraid. She _should_ , she knew that, but she didn’t.

“Just stay out of the way of those claws!” Ridge said as he backed up.

“Way ahead of you,” Kim muttered. The beast reared up on its hind legs and smashed down with a force that shook the floor under her feet. It focused its beady eyes on Ridgedog, who it seemed to regard as the biggest threat. It was lumbering, but when it struck its speed shocked Kim. Its claws swiped at Ridge faster than she would have thought possible for a creature of its size and he barely danced out of the way of those sheer spikes in time. Kim jumped aside as the behemoth tumbled forward again, so that it passed over her head. She swung her sword at its underbelly, but it was not soft and defenseless as she had hoped. The beast flinched at the strike, but it was clever and simply dropped onto its belly to crush her against the linoleum. She threw herself backwards, but she still wouldn’t have made it if Strife hadn’t caught her arm and thrown her out of harm’s way. He flashed her a worried smile before plunging his sword at the crook of the creature’s arm. The beast twisted aside at the last minute so that Will’s sword deflected off the armoured scales of its elbow, sending off sparks.

“Back up!” yelled Ridge, “Regroup!”

Kim disengaged, running one way as Will ran the other and they met up with Ridge around the back of the next row of server banks. They didn’t stand about to talk as the giant apparition was already lumbering after them. It seemed slower on its feet than it did when it was lunging at close quarters, which Kim was thankful for. She didn’t think she could have outrun it otherwise.

“I hope you guys have a plan!” she yelled at Strife and Ridge as they ran, leading the creature after them.

“Yeah!” Ridge said brightly, “Our plan was to kill it!”

“That’s not a plan!” Kim protested, but there wasn’t much chance to demand for more when the beast was right behind them.

“Split off at this next corner!” Will shouted, “We’ll try another attack in this open area!”

“Doesn’t it have any weak points?” Kim asked in exasperation as Will and Ridge peeled away.

Ridge turned back with a shrug, “If you find out, you’ll be the first to know!”

Great. Kim kept running forward with the apparition following her, perhaps thinking that she would be a nice appetiser before it tucked into the larger humans for its main course. In a feat of agility that Kim could never have achieved on her own, she leapt up to her left, her foot landing on the first shelt of the server ranks. She pushed off, so that her other foot landed on the opposite side of the row, one shelf up. Leaping up and up with each step, she found herself on top of the racks, running along the metal sheeting. The creature chased on, knocking expensive computing equipment aside with every step. Assuming they lived through this, there was going to be one hell of a clean up and doubtlessly a large bill for the management.

“Lead him this way!” Strife yelled to her left. Kim turned her head and saw him running along the top of the rack two rows away. With a great push, she jumped across to the next row and the next so that she was running beside Strife. The beast seemed confused at where she had gone, skidding to a halt in the middle of the racks. It swung around in loose circles, its tail whipping around and smashing equipment to the floor.

“Help!” yelled Ridge, a short distance away. Kim and Will exchanged a look and then they leapt together, across the head of the creature and split up again to try and find Ridgedog. The apparition saw them and followed this time, crashing through the racks after them. Kim found Ridgedog down on the floor ahead of her, holding back three of the dog-like apparitions that had attacked her the first day she’d discovered the secrets of the server level and Will had defended her. Kim leapt down from above and landed. Normally she would have snapped her ankles in such a fall, but down here when the apparitions came, normal physics and abilities didn’t seem to apply. Her sudden appearance distracted the dogs, allowing her and Ridge to swiftly dispatch them. They didn’t even give time to let the last of the pack hit the floor before they were running again, barely ahead of their greater enemy.

“Ridge, we’ve got to think of something!” Kim said frantically, “We can’t run forever!”

“I know!” Ridge yelled above the thundering beat of the beast’s paws on the floor as it chased them, “I just need a few more minutes!”

Kim was starting to doubt if they had a few more minutes. The apparition hadn’t managed to wound them yet, but eventually it would land a blow. They had to be lucky all the time and it only had to be lucky once.

As they found themselves approaching a clearing in the shelves, Kim spotted Strife above them, still running on the top of the racks.

“Turn and fight it ahead!” Strife told them, “I’m going to try something!”

Kim was more than a little apprehensive about what ‘something’ was, but she felt pumped up and ready to fight. She was tired of running away. The blade in her hand twitched, prepared for action.

“Now!” Ridge yelled, spinning around to face the monster. Kim twisted at the same time, charging back in the face of the beast who had no time to register that it had suddenly turned from predator to prey. At almost the same moment, Will let out a high war cry and jumped from the shelves with his sword extended in front of him. He landed squarely on the beast’s back, his sword stabbing into its flesh between the shoulder blades. Wounded but not defeated, the creature reared and bucked. Strife hung onto the embedded sword for dear life as he was thrown around.

While the apparition was focused on the human determinedly clinging onto its back, Kim swept in with her sword held low. Ridge attacked from the front, hacking with all its might into the mighty forearms, deflecting the claws that tried to beat him away. Kim didn’t have his brute strength, so she moved in more delicately, trying to find a place to bury her blade up to the hilt. She already knew that the underbelly was more protected than it seemed, so she moved further back. A violent slash behind the back of the knee cut into the calf muscle and when the monster reared up in pain, the tendon snapped with a crack like a steel cable splitting in two. The great studded tail whipped around, taking Kim’s legs from under her and sending her tumbling to the floor. The beast writhed, finally dislodging Will who crashed to the floor nearby, his sword still buried in the creature’s back.

“Move!” Ridge shouted at them, a note of fear in his voice as he tried to keep the apparition distracted, “Move now!” The behemoth was clever though and even through its pain, it ignored Ridgedog, knowing that the two downed members of the squad were more vulnerable prey. Kim scrambled back to her feet with nothing but bruises, but Will was lying dazed on the floor. Kim stood in front of him, protecting him, but she knew she couldn’t pull him out of harm’s way quickly enough before the monster got both of them. She barely parried the beast’s next blow that forced her to her knees.

“Ridge, I need you!” Kim screamed, but Ridgedog was already there, skidding out from underneath the creature’s leg and throwing the unconscious Will over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift.

“Get out of here!” Ridge told her, “We’ll regroup once he comes around.”

Kim leapt aside as the claws swiped down at them again. Strong as Ridge might be, the apparition wasn’t going to just let him carry Strife out without trouble and Kim didn’t know if he’d be able to stay ahead with his buddy on his back. “I’m going to distract him!” she yelled, already leaping away.

“Kim!” Ridgedog’s voice trailed after her, but she was gone. Ridge cursed her, but he didn’t hang about, running Will to safety. Kim jumped from shelf to shelf, diving onto the creature’s back just as it started running after Ridgedog and Strife. She’d have plummeted back to the ground if she hadn’t been able to grab ahold of Will’s sword which was still wedged between the monster’s powerful shoulders. She dragged down on his sword with all her strength, twisting it in the muscle’s of the beast’s back and making it shriek in pain. It stopped chasing and started crashing around in distress, trying to dislodge her from its back. She held on, but it was too strong for her, its tail lashing wildly in circles. Like Will, she slipped from her foothold on the creature’s back, but she didn’t fall to the floor. Instead she bounced over its neck, landing between its eyes and the horn on its snout. Its small, dark eyes focused on her comically as it tried to understand why the little human was suddenly so big. With a scream, Kim raised her sword and thrust it into the right eye of the apparition. It let out another shriek of pain, even higher than before, and snapped its head back in rage. Kim went flying, but she managed to keep a grip on her sword, even as she crashed into server rack and slid to the floor. She rolled under the rack, trying to ignore the pain that had ignited all over her body. Something might be broken, but the adrenaline covered everything now. The creature stomped, still screeching. The tail whirled again and the rack was lifted from covering Kim and was thrown across the room. Kim forced herself to her feet and began to run again.

“Kim? Kim!”

She could hear Ridge shouting for her and she yelled back to him incomprehensibly, but he heard the direction and that was the main thing. She circled around a row of shelves and he caught up with her.

“It’s bleeding!” he yelled triumphantly, “We’ve almost got it!”

Kim turned back and saw that it was gushing bright white light from its weeping eye, but she wasn’t ready to celebrate. The monster was charging them down, enraged even further than before.

Ridgedog forced her back behind him, “I’ve got it!”

It must have been the influence of the reality warp, but the creature started to wheel its legs, trying to slow down as Ridge confidently stepped forward in long strides, his sword held proudly aloft in front of him. The beast, so eager to attack and maim, suddenly seemed to be having second thoughts.

“Go back!” Ridgedog roared, raising his sword even higher as he broke into a dead run, closing the distance between himself and the titan, “Go back!”

The creature let out a keening cry, then pounced forward into battle. Kim could only watch as Ridge met its strike with his sword, not just parrying but forcing it back, making it retreat. He swung again and again, with the calm repetition of a man felling a tree. Finally the beast screamed in rage and flung itself forward, but Ridge was ready. He pulled his sword in and set the crossguard against his shoulder, steadying himself. The beast’s swipe went over his head and its momentum pulled it forward, impaling itself on Ridge’s sword. He threw himself aside as the full weight of the creature came down on him, twisting out from under the carcass that slid lifelessly to the floor. Ridge fell to his hands and knees, panting as sweat ran down his face.

Feeling like she could suddenly move again, Kim ran forward. Ridge looked fine, tired, but fine. He looked up at her and gave her a smile.

“It’s over,” he said, “There’s no more apparitions here today.”

Kim slid her sword back into its sheath at her hip, then offered Ridgedog a hand to pull him back to his feet. The great creature was already dissolving into the golden streams of binary that floated off and dissipated into the air. In mere moments nothing remained except Strife’s sword, which clattered to the ground.

“What a mess,” Ridge said, surveying the wreckage of the server level with a sigh.

Kim carefully picked up Strife’s sword, as if it were a fragile object. “Where’s Will?” she asked, “Is he okay?”

“I think he’ll be fine,” Ridge assured her, “He just hit the ground a bit hard, but he’s suffered worse. Come on, we should give him his sword.”

Kim followed Ridge through the destroyed server banks silently, too caught up in the thoughts pouring through her mind. She almost felt strangely daunted to speak after what she’d just witnessed. She knew that whatever force that existed here enhanced their abilities, but still… He’d faced down the monster like St. George and the dragon. Screw rock stars or celebrities, Kim felt like she was in the presence of a superhero.

Will was lying on the sofa in the little breakroom that he shared with Ridgedog and Kim was relieved to see that he was already propping himself up on one arm.

“I guess you guys didn’t need me after all,” he joked, rubbing his head.

“Couldn’t have done it without you,” Ridge assured him, slapping him lightly on the shoulder, “Try not to knock out any more brain cells, we can barely keep this place running as it is.”

Kim held the sword out to Will, who took it gratefully and put it at his waist.

“Are you okay?” he asked her curiously.

Kim just laughed that off, shaking her head, “I should be asking you that. I’m fine. I’ll probably have bruises tomorrow.”

“You did a good job,” Ridgedog told her, gulping down a glass of water, “That wasn’t an easy fight.”

“Is that… common?” Kim asked, trying not to sound like she was scared. Now that it was over and the adrenaline had run its course, her legs felt a bit shaky. Yet, as much as she wanted to go home and fall into bed for several days, there was another part of her that was almost disappointed that it was over.

“Nah,” Ridge replied with a shake of his head, “That was a pretty big one. I think we’ve had bigger once or twice, but not often. That kind of thing doesn’t show up more than once every few months at most. Usually less.”

Strife sat up on the sofa, swaying slightly. He blinked hard a couple of times, then pushed himself up to stand straight. Kim held her hands out slightly so that she could catch him if he fell over, but after a moment he seemed quite steady.

“I’m okay,” he nodded at her, “Let’s go survey the damage.”

The damage was quite severe, to say the least. Kim helped Ridge and Strife count the number of racks that had been knocked over or damaged. Forty three rows remained standing, while more than twice that had at least superficial damage. Ridgedog face palmed as they totalled up the numbers.

“This is going to take _forever_ ,” he complained.

“We’ll get the techs down from the main studio,” Strife said, “And use the back-ups for anything that’s been destroyed. It’s not the end of the work. Worst case scenario, we lose some of our old back-catalogue of episodes. They’ll still be online.”

“Yeah,” sighed Ridge, “But it’s just going to be so much _work_.”

Kim had been strolling with them along a collapsed row of servers, when a door at the end caught her eye. She left Ridge and Strife talking about data recovery and proceeded to the end of the row. There weren’t many doors down here, since most of the level was given over to the open space that contained all the server banks. The only separate rooms that Kim had seen so far was the little area sectioned off for the breakroom and the two large rooms at either side of the room, one of which had contained all the chickens the first time she’d come down to the server level. This door was in the middle of the room on the back wall, roughly opposite the large round door that was the main entrance to this level. Kim pushed open the door, which opened easily, and it revealed a small room, no bigger than a large broom closet. It was plain and empty except for a single large door on the opposite wall. Unlike the first door, which was in the same style as the rest of the server level, this second door was made of a dark wood bound in black-painted metal and placed in a carved. solid door frame. It was similar to the door to Hannah’s tower, but darker and somehow gloomier. Kim didn’t imagine a light, airy tower beyond this door, but maybe more like some kind of dungeon…

“It’s locked,” Ridgedog said suddenly, so close behind her that Kim almost jumped out of her skin. She turned quickly to find Ridge and Strife standing just a few feet away, having approached without her noticing.

“We don’t know what’s behind it,” Strife shrugged, “We’d certainly like to, considering all the apparitions we get around here. But we’ve never got it to so much as budge.”

Kim reached out and grasped the handle. She wasn’t sure she wanted it to open, but she twisted and pulled away, to test the truth of their words. As they had said, the door didn’t move a millimeter. Whatever was holding it closed, it wasn’t about to give up its grip to the tug of Kim Richards.

“Just another mystery,” Kim sighed, resting her hand lightly on the dark wood. It was no warmer or colder than the rest of the room, which was slightly reassuring. She gave the handle another little pull, just in case, then turned her back on the door with a hint of regret. Whatever lay beyond, it wasn’t something she was going to be able to discover the answer to today.

Kim offered to stay and try and help fix things up, but Strife declined.

“You’ve done enough already,” he told her, “Go home and get some rest. And, Kim.”

He paused and Kim looked up at him curiously.

“Thanks,” he smiled, “You saved my ass today.”

Kim just gave him an easy grin. “No problem,” she told him, “I’m sure you can return the favour soon enough.”

 

* * *

 

The next morning Kim found herself driving to work with what seemed like a thousand different bruises under her clothes. She was sore and stiff enough that she had considered calling in sick, but she’d already missed enough days after her incident with Hat Films, so she decided to struggle in anyway. At least she hadn’t broken anything, which had been her main concern. The stiffness would probably go away after a few hours, although she was probably going to be left with the bruises for at least a couple of days.

It felt strange to greet Nilesy as if nothing important or life-threatening had happened since their last meeting, but it wasn’t as though he could know. Kim wasn’t in his office for long anyway before she grabbed her laptop and headed upstairs to the main studio for the recording of YogNews. She still felt mildly apprehensive at the prospect of Hat Films lingering in the studio, but she felt a lot more confident than she had a few days before. After all, Hat Films were just human and she had dispatched an apparition of monstrous proportions. Okay, she didn’t have her sword or her special powers up here, but she still felt more empowered than she did before. It she could defeat that creature, she could find a way to get the best of Al Smiffy and his cronies.

When the lift doors opened to the main studio, Kim quickly swept her eyes over the assembled cast and crew. She was pleased to find Hat Films conspicuously absent and even happier to spot Duncan loitering around behind the camera. He turned as she walked over and gave her a smile and a friendly wave. The rest of the crew were busy setting up for the recording. Under the heavy studio lights sat the two presenters of YogNews, Strippin and Dodger. Kim had never met either of them before, but she had seen them on the station before. After Hat Films, Stripping and Dodger were probably the most well known faces of the station, presenting the news and some of the more serious discussions on the network. It was also an open secret that they were together, although it was never outright mentioned for the sake of professionalism. The pair of them were having their makeup done for the shoot, sitting at the news desk with little napkins around their necks to protect their clothes while a makeup artist touched up their faces for the camera.

Kim wandered over to the group with her laptop tucked under one arm. Once again there were a multitude of Toms and Sam was working the audio. Kim set up at a table a short distance from the camera, with her laptop open. She knew what her task was and it was easy enough to do. She just had to keep an eye on the updating news in case anything new came in while the recording was in process.

Duncan sat down beside her, no doubt keen to distract her from any actual work she might have been planning to do.

“What are you doing here?” she asked him as they waited for the recording to start and Kim opened up a few webpages that she was planning to monitor.

“Just some reasons,” Duncan said, as if that was in any way a worthwhile justification, “Very important reasons.”

“Like skiving on your work?” Kim suggested teasingly.

“That could be one reason,” Duncan accepted, without admitting that was why he was here. In truth, Kim was happy to see Duncan. Not only did she enjoy his company, but it would be nice to have someone she trusted here just in case Hat Films did turn up. She didn’t really think she had anything to fear when there were so many other people here - and she was trying her best not to be afraid anyway, reminding herself about defeating the monster again - but it was always better to be with a friend.

“Does nobody ever give you into trouble for avoiding work?” Kim asked seriously. She had been told that Duncan had been here a long time and obviously knew people higher up the chain of command, but she had to assume he still had some duties to do in Yogtowers. If she took as many breaks as Duncan did, Colin would never be off her back. If she remembered correctly, Duncan’s direct supervisor was the artists’ leader, Harry, but maybe he was a more lax boss than Colin was.

“I do my work,” Duncan objected, “I just do it in my own time.”

“So you save up all your energy for the week and then you pounce and get everything done in two hours?” Kim asked, a smile flickering on her lips. Duncan tended to be so relaxed that it was difficult to imagine him pouncing on anything.

“Something like that,” he smiled, enigmatic as usual.

Before they were able to talk further, the crew called for silence and the recording began. Things moved quite quickly, since Strippin and Dodger had done this hundreds of times by now. Kim browsed through various news websites, taking her job as researcher quite seriously. Had she been lazier, she would have dismissed the task since it wasn’t even her real job, but Kim had never been one to take a half-assed approach to her work. Even if she was only working with Nilesy for a few days, she was still planning on completing each task to the best of her ability.

About halfway through the session, Kim found an important new story, so she flagged Tom over when there was a pause between takes. He pulled out a pencil and notepad when she pointed out the story, scribbling down some notes.

“Ok, take a ten minute break,” he said, “We’re going to do a quick rewrite for the next take. There’s been an announcement from Blizzard.”

He’d only just left her table, when Tom was replaced by a much shorter figure, but with a much brighter, beaming expression, and the drifting scent of hot coffee.

“Hi there!” said an American voice brightly, “I don’t think we’ve met before.”

Dodger was probably the only person that Kim had met in the office who didn’t make her feel about three feet tall. They were almost the same height, with Kim just edging her out as being slightly taller - not that they could tell when Kim was sitting down. Kim shook her hand and Dodger drew up a chair next to Kim and Duncan.

“I’m Kim,” Kim introduced herself, “I’m an editor, but I’m doing research for today.”

“Oh, you’re taking over Sjin’s job until they hire a replacement?” Dodger asked, “That’s sweet of you, I know Sjin didn’t just want to drop everything.” She took a long sip of her coffee, “It’s so great that he’s going to be able to work on the creative side full time, isn’t it? I’d seen some of his recordings before and I always thought they were great.”

“Yeah,” Kim nodded. In truth, she hadn’t seen much of Sjin’s output, but she had little doubt that he would have been promoted if it hadn’t been up to par. The station was quite particular about who they allowed to fall under their banner of content creators.

“Hello, hello,” said Strippin, who seemed to cast a shadow over the table for several seconds before he actually reached it. Now _this_ was a person who made Kim feel as if she was really a hobbit. “Nice to meet’cha, I’m Strippin, or you can call me Sam.” His voice was a little rougher than some of the others in the office who were mostly from the wider Bristol area or the south-west of England. Sam had a bit of a London edge in his voice. He was a handsome man as well, maybe even the most traditionally handsome man she had met in the office. He flashed Dodger a smile and in that instant Kim was sure that any rumour of them being a couple was 100% true.

“Are you going to be okay for your next recording?” Strippin asked Dodger, “We were a bit delayed.”

Dodger looked at the watch on her wrist, “Yeah, I think so.”

“I’m sure they can’t start another shoot until this one is done,” Kim said, a little confused.

“Oh, no, I meant at Network Polaris,” Dodger said, with a slight shake of the head, “I always need to go shoot over there after YogNews and I swear the schedule just keeps getting tighter.”

“Oh, right,” Kim said, feeling a little foolish for butting in. She remembered now that Dodger was a rarity at Yogtowers because she was actually here on a contract rather than as a full-time member of the station. Her real home was at Polaris, a competing network, but she continued to host YogNews at Yogscast station through a strange quirk in her contract.

“I think Polaris think they can make me quit YogNews if they make my Tuesdays as busy as possible,” Dodger said, her hands on her hips, “I’m already doing two other podcasts…” she waved away her concern, “Anyway, sorry, I shouldn’t complain to you about that. How do you liking working here?”

Kim was pleased to find that both Dodger and Strippin were genuinely nice people. Not for the first time, she wondered how assholes like Hat Films had managed to worm their way into being colleagues with such kind and wonderful people as so many of the people at Yogtowers had proven themselves to be. Kim was sad for the conversation to be over when the rewrite was done and Strippin and Dodger had to go back to shooting.

The shoot was drawing to a close, with just a few extra pick-ups to be filmed when Kim looked up and saw Al Smiffy leaning against the door that led to the back stairs of the studio. He wasn’t look at her, he was watching the shoot, but she wondered how long he had been there. Even from over here she could see the dark inky blue bruising around his eye, although it appeared to have faded since Ravs had taken his picture. Despite telling herself that she needed to be confident, Kim still felt a drop of panic well up inside herself. She reached out and her fingers brushed up against Duncan’s arm. She fastened onto Duncan’s wrist, her eyes still on Smith, as if he might vanish if she looked away. Only when Duncan took her hand in his did she look around at him, but he was also watching Smith. Kim felt her face go slightly red and Duncan also had two red patches on his pale cheeks, but he looked more angry than embarrassed.

When she looked up again, Al Smiffy was looking right at her with a glare that froze her to her seat. She felt like an ice shard had just pierced her heart. She felt Duncan quietly get to his feet beside her and with that Smiffy turned sharply and left through the stair door. She watched the door for a few seconds after he left, but he seemed like he was definitely gone. Duncan silently sat down beside her and nobody else in the studio seemed to have noticed anything going on. Kim hadn’t let go of his hand and he hadn’t let go of hers either.

Only when the shoot was wrapped and the lights came up did Kim let go. She still felt a little embarrassed, not sure what Duncan would take from her hanging onto his hand for half the recording. If he knew about Smith, then he might understand, but if he didn’t… Kim just didn’t want him to get the wrong idea, that was all.

With the recording over, Dodger stood on her tiptoes to kiss Strippin on the cheek and then dashed out to the lift with her coffee in one hand and her keys in the other. Clearly she was really in a hurry to get back to her next recording at Network Polaris. Kim couldn’t help but see the similarity between herself and Dodger, Duncan and Strippin. An image rose to her mind unbidden, of Kim standing on her tiptoes to kiss Duncan on the cheek… This just made Kim blush again and she looked at the far wall to try and disguise it. It was just a silly daydream after all.

When she looked back, Duncan was watching her and then it was his turn to go slightly pink. Everyone around them was packing up and getting ready to go for lunch, but they both just sat there, neither one quite sure what they were supposed to be doing.

“Kim,” Duncan said haltingly, “Do you want to do something?”

“Something?” Kim said quizzically.

“Yeah. Something. After work. You and me. We could go out together after work sometime,” Duncan said, finally managing to string a complete sentence together.

Kim blinked a couple of times, feeling like she was a deer in the headlights of a 18-wheeler, “Go out like… a date?”

“Er…” Duncan paused, “Yeah. It could be. If you like.”

Kim suddenly felt like her insides were taking part in a carefully choreographed gymnastics routine. Her heart felt like it was in her throat and her stomach was jumping loops while her guts seemed all tied up in knots. “A date? With a coworker?” Even as she said it, she wanted to not care, to forget about all of that, but her head told her that dating a coworker was a bad idea. But she didn’t even work in the same department as Duncan, so how awkward could it get? It was all just so sudden. Maybe him being a coworker wasn’t the only reason she was stalling.

Duncan’s face fell and immediately Kim felt like the most terrible and cruel person in the world. “I’m- I’m not saying no! I just- Let me get back to you, okay? Sorry.” _Dammit._

Duncan’s face moved from disappointed to calm in almost an instant. “Sure,” he nodded, “No problem. No pressure.”

She gave him a smile and squeezed his arm lightly as she got up to leave. Why did things have to be complicated? Somehow everything always ended up being complicated.

Kim ended up eating lunch by herself in the research office. Nilesy was gone when she arrived back, doubtlessly through in the staff room with the other editors, but Kim appreciated the time to think. It took her about ten minutes of quiet contemplation just to unscramble her brain. Even then, she was still conflicted. She had no idea what to tell Duncan. Would she like to go out with him after work, as a date, get to know him better? Of course. Duncan was a really cool guy, someone she could definitely be good friends with and, yes, maybe even something more. It all seemed so fast though. She’d never had a chance to think of him as more than a friend until today and now a date? Not to mention that the whole thing with Smiffy and Hat Films was still shaking her up more than she’d care to admit. She’d thought Smiffy had seemed like a nice enough guy right up to the point where he’d stuck his tongue down her throat and smashed her head off the end of his bed. Although Kim was sure that Duncan would never, ever be the same as Smith… there was still a small irrational part of her brain that said, ‘But what if…?’

Nilesy didn’t get back until around half an hour later and he seemed surprised to see her when he returned.

“Oh hi Kim, I thought you might still be shooting since you hadn’t come to lunch. Did everything go to plan then?”

Kim nodded, “More or less. They rewrote one part, but overall I think it went pretty well.”

She hadn’t been planning to ask for advice, not from Nilesy of all people, but somehow the words slipped out by themselves as he went to sit down at his computer.

“Duncan asked me out.”

Nilesy turned to face her in his swivel chair, one eyebrow raised and a faint smirk on his face. “Oh, really?” he asked, in a tone that Kim immediately recognised as an experienced gossip. She clapped her hands to her mouth in horror that she’d spilled the beans so quickly. Not that Duncan had specifically asked her not to tell, but she owed him that much. The whole office shouldn’t know, as if she was spreading a rumour to make fun of him.

“Please don’t say tell anyone, Nilesy. I don’t want him to think I’m talking behind his back or laughing at him.”

Nilesy rolled his eyes slightly, but then mimicked himself locking his mouth and throwing away the key. “It’s safe with me,” he promised. A beat passed, then he added, “So, what did you say?”

Kim had an odd flashback to her gossipy Malaysian aunts asking her about a crush she had at school when she was in her early teens. She had a sense that Nilesy was going to wriggle this information out of her one way or another. He was a researcher after all, he had his ways. Perhaps Hannah wasn’t the only one capable of getting her to speak after all.

“I told him I’d let him know,” Kim confessed, looking away from Nilesy, “Because I’m an idiot.”

“How so?”

Kim sighed, “I don’t think I’m going to know the right answer in the future any better than I do now. Except that it’s going to be even harder to say no after making him wait than it’d be if I just said it outright.”

“...Because you don’t want to say no, right?” Nilesy suggested, seemingly in the process of coming up with his own personal theory, “You totally dig Duncan, don’t you?”

“What? No! What? Oh, no,” Kim protested, cursing internally as she felt herself turning red again, “It’s just _Duncan_. Like, he’s a good guy. A really nice guy.”

“So, what, you think he’s ugly?” asked Nilesy bluntly.

“No!” gasped Kim, “Of course not, I think he’s very- Anyway, it’s not all about looks you know.”

“Sounds like you want to go out with him,” Nilesy said, the beginning of a stupid smile on his face that really made Kim want to punch him for some reason. She sighed in aggrievement.

“Look, it’s more complicated than that,” she said, as if that was super obvious.

Nilesy threw his hands up dramatically, “Girls,” he muttered, then turned back to her, “Why’s it got to be complicated? You like him? You want to go out? Then go out. It’s not like you’re going to get in trouble. Look at Zoey and Fiona, or Strippin and Dodger, or Lewis and Hannah, or Teutron and Minty. There’s couples all over this building and some of them have been dating for years. Why would you and Duncan be so bad?”

This took Kim by surprise, not least because in her light panic she’d managed to forget the other couples of Yogtowers. Nilesy was right. It wasn’t as if Turps was going to come and fire her for something that at least eight other people in the building were already up to. But still…

“I don’t know, maybe I’m just not ready,” she admitted. Ready for what? It wasn’t as if she hadn’t had relationships before, was this all because of Smiffy being a toolbag? Because she refused to let him own her like that, but she also refused to let it mess up her relationship with Duncan.

Nilesy shrugged, already typing away on his keyboard, “I can’t tell you the answer to that. It’s none of my concern what you do really. I just don’t want you moping around in a few days when you realise you wish you’d gone on a date that you already turned down.”

“Hmph.”

Kim wasn’t sure what to say to that. What if she was moping around in a few days because she realised she’d gone on a date that she shouldn’t have and it ruined her friendship with Duncan? It was impossible to see the future, so she couldn’t tell which likelihood would come true. Maybe even a third option that she hadn’t considered would be the real future in store for her.

Somehow she managed to drag her mind off of Duncan’s proposition and back onto work for the last few hours of the day. At the end of the day, she was no more decided than she had been before. Part of her felt that Nilesy was right to urge her on, to just go with what felt right. However, there was still the more anxious part of her that worried about everything and held her back. Either way, she didn’t feel that she could commit one way or the other tonight. Perhaps a night’s sleep would do her good.

 

* * *

 

The next day she arrived at work early, with a coffee and her hair neatly tied up. Nobody would have guessed that she’d only achieved a few hours of sleep last night. This was partly due to a late-night Nintendo marathon rather than simply thinking about Duncan, but she couldn’t deny that he played a large role in her sleepless night. Kim felt calmer about it, as if she was getting closer to making a decision, but she wasn’t entirely sure what it was going to be. If she was completely honest with herself, she was inclined to accept. If nothing else, she was curious exactly what a date with Duncan Jones entailed. However, the worries still lingered below the surface of her calm exterior, each fret like a little hook holding her back. She needed something to give her that extra push.

The morning passed quickly enough as Kim wrapped up the research she’d managed to carry out for Rythian’s Project Blackrock. No doubt he was going to need a lot more in the future, but that would be left to her successor once she went back to the job she was actually hired for rather than working as a research monkey. Research wasn’t so bad really, and she had quite liked working with Nilesy, but the editors’ office had come to feel something like home over the last few months. Hopefully Nilesy’s new coworker would be up to handling all the demands that Rythian was likely to make of him.

When they heard the editors making their way along the hallway to get lunch, Nilesy stretched back in his chair. “You want to come and get lunch, Kim?” he asked.

“Just a second,” Kim said, shuffling a bunch of papers together and then binding them with a staple, “I’m going to run these up to Rythian first. I thought I’d show him what I’ve done.”

“He asked for it on paper?” Nilesy asked, “What is this, 1987?”

Kim smiled and shrugged. She didn’t really care and apparently Rythian wanted it sent up this way. She could, of course, use the Multilevel Filing System for just this kind of job, but then she wouldn’t be able to discuss the things she’d changed. It would only take five minutes.

“Fine,” Nilesy said, “I’ll see you in the staff room, I guess.”

Kim nodded firmly, then put the papers under her arm and caught the lift upstairs while Nilesy went to join their friends in the staff room. The lift whizzed up to the eighth floor and Kim walked along the corridor to Rythian’s office. She realised he might have already gone for lunch himself. Kim knocked on the door, but there was no answer. She decided to drop off the papers on his desk and then she could come back if he had anything to ask her after he had read them for himself. She pushed open the door and promptly dropped the papers to the floor in shock.

Rythian and Ravs were standing by Rythian’s desk. That in itself was not strange. That their lips were locked in a kiss, both with their eyes gently closed, Rythian’s palm cupped under Ravs’ chin; that was strange. In the moment that Kim stood there with her mouth slightly open, she understood everything. The way that Rythian leant forward slightly, so that even though their bodies didn’t touch, it was clear how intimate they were. Ravs’ eyes flickered open, followed by Rythian’s and they exchanged a close look like only lovers could share. Somehow they hadn’t even noticed her come in. Awkwardly, Kim cleared her throat. Only then did they jump apart, aghast. Ravs valiantly pretended to have very important business with a newspaper lying on the table, while Rythian just looked at Kim in horror.

“Uh… I had papers for you?” Kim said lamely, before she realised that she wasn’t holding them and they were now lying uselessly on the floor. She bent and picked them up, then tried to offer them to Rythian who didn’t take them from her. He seemed too shocked to move.

“I did knock,” Kim added quietly, trying to decide whether she should just go. Maybe it would be best to just leave and they could all act like this had never happened.

“Hey, right, listen,” Ravs said, stumbling over his words, “Could you, like, not mention this to anyone?”

“Uh, sure,” Kim said. Rythian finally kicked into motion like a robot rebooting itself. He slowly took the papers from Kim and sat them down on the desk. Kim wondered how long this had been going on for. Ravs had been disappearing up to see Rythian at lunch for a while now, but that was no indication that this had only started then. Whatever ‘this’ was? Dating? Friends with benefits? Who the fuck knew? And really, when it came down to it, what business was it of hers anyway?

“Yeah, please don’t mention it Kim,” he added. He pulled the scarf he always wore back over his mouth. He had a few scars running across his neck and lower cheek that she presumed he wanted to hide, although they were only faint silvery lines, not ugly fresh wounds. Perhaps he had adopted the scarf when the scars were new and was just in the habit of wearing it now.

“I won’t,” Kim promised. “But, you know,” she said, clearing her throat awkwardly again, “Just so you know, nobody would care. Like, nobody would think less of you if you were dating or whatever. I don’t. I mean, look at Zoey and Fiona for christ’s sakes. Everybody loves them.”

Ravs tilted his head to one side, deep in thought, although the slight frown on his face indicated that it wasn’t necessarily a nice chain of thought. Rythian just shook his head slightly and said, “We- That is, I-” He paused, trying to assemble the words correctly in his head before speaking again. “I’m not ashamed of anything. But you’ll respect our privacy, won’t you?”

Kim gave him a firm nod, “Yes. Of course. I won’t say a word, I promise you that.”

Rythian looked visibly relieved. Kim decided it was definitely time to escape before things could get any more awkward. She turned and exited quickly, not allowing a huge grin to overtake her face before the elevator doors had shut behind her. Rythian and _Ravs?_ They didn’t need to make her swear not to tell anyone, she didn’t think anybody would believe her if she did. If someone had told her that they were a couple yesterday, she’d have thought they were insane. Yet, here it was. Funny how the world worked sometimes. And having seen them in that moment when she entered the room, looking at each other like that and standing how they were… well, it all made sense now. They were a couple, just like anybody else. Just a secret one, for now.

Kim found herself in a good mood for the rest of the day. The afternoon passed by just as quickly as the morning had and before she knew it, it was almost time to leave.

“So, are you going to need me tomorrow?” she asked Nilesy as they were shutting everything down, “I notice a conspicuous lack of my replacement.”

Nilesy scratched the back of his head idly, looking around as if a suitable coworker might suddenly pop out from under one of the nearby tables. “Yeah, I guess I might,” he said uneasily, “Turps promised this wouldn’t drag on, but…”

“I don’t even know if Colin will let me go for another day,” Kim said, “I do have an actual job to do.”

“Yeah,” Nilesy agreed unhappily, “If you like, just go back to editing. It’s not your duty to fill in here forever. I’m sure I can manage it until Turps finds someone.”

Kim sighed heavily and found herself getting annoyed at Nilesy’s resignation to taking on all the work by himself. “Screw this!” she told him, “Turps has been promising you help for ages now and he never delivers! First he was taking Sjin away for days at a time without any kind of relief for you and now he’s expecting you to work two jobs until he finds time to hire someone? When will that be, never? If he wants you to work two jobs, he better pay you for two jobs!” She grabbed Nilesy by the arm and started marching him along the corridor. He was much bigger than her and could have resisted if he wanted to, but he chose to trail along behind her like a helpless kitten.

“Where are we going?” he asked, tripping over his feet slightly and stumbling.

“We’re going to see Turps,” Kim said defiantly, “He needs to know that this isn’t acceptable.”

“Oh,” Nilesy looked as if he was taking a moment to accept that he was about to lose his job. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Kim didn’t reply, just stepped into the lift and repeatedly jabbed the button for Level Eight. Nilesy fidgeted with his bag as the lift climbed the tower. He clearly wasn’t very happy with this plan, but he wasn’t turning around and leaving either. Kim suspected that he’d wanted to do this for quite a while. He just needed someone to prod him into action.

When the doors opened Kim marched off again, with Nilesy catching up behind her. She strode to the end of the corridor, beside Hannah’s fancy tower door, and rapped sharply on the office door next to it.

“Come in, come in!” came Turps’ voice from inside. His usual cheeriness was undercut with a harried tone, but Kim knew that if this conversation didn’t happen now, it never would.

“Turps, have you hired my replacement so that I can go back to editing yet?” she asked. Kim knew that she had to walk a fine line between being assertive and being rude. As much as she wanted a good outcome for Nilesy, Turps was still their boss and it wouldn’t be a good idea to upset him.

“Oh!” Turps exclaimed, “Oh no, I haven’t even scheduled the interviews yet. That’s really terrible of me. I will make sure to get somebody on that in the morning. I’m sure I can find somebody wandering around here that can call up and arrange some interviews, and then there will be a notice period and all the paperwork… Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll have someone in a few days, two weeks tops. It’s really just been such a mess up here, the Talent have had some complaints that I’ve been having to deal with-”

“Turps!” interrupted Kim, angered to the point where she was ready to tell him where he could shove the Talent’s complaints, but Nilesy put a hand on her arm and shook his head. He was ready to talk for himself.

“Look, Turps,” Nilesy said, in an assertive tone of voice that Kim hadn’t heard him use before. “If the Talent is so much trouble to you, get an assistant. Get a full-time dealing-with-the-Talent’s-bullshit member of staff. God knows you lot have enough money for that. I just want what I need to do my job. One coworker. You want to see what happens when the research doesn’t get done? Because it’s your shows and your income that’s going to see the difference. This is a huge building, there has to be at least one person wandering these halls that doesn’t have anything better to do than to stop this company from falling apart one critically understaffed department at a time. I bet they can even start tomorrow. Does that not sound reasonable?”

“Well, yes, but-” Turps started, but Nilesy cut in again.

“And, you know what? I think I deserve a bloody pay rise for all the extra work I’ve been having to do. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve done the amount of work I was actually hired to do, not twice that much? Around four months. So I want a pay rise and a coworker. Or I quit.”

Kim was marvelled by Nilesy’s sudden confidence, although she did notice a bead of sweat trickling down the back of his neck. Like her, he was no doubt very distressed at the possibility of actually losing his job. But this was the Hat Films tactic and it seemed to work for them often enough. Nilesy was just hoping that Turps needed him.

Turps held up his hands, “Okay, Nilesy, okay. You got it, never say I don’t look after the needs of my employees. The Yogs are one big happy family, that’s what I say, and I’m not having one of us running away because they aren’t getting what they need. I’ll give you ten percent. How does that sound?”

From the way Nilesy was turning red, Kim suspected that sounded extremely good indeed, but he was trying to contain himself for the sake of bargaining.

“Fifteen percent,” Nilesy retorted, “And the coworker.”

“Oh, alright, alright,” Turps said, smiling to Kim’s surprise. She suspected he enjoyed a round of hard bargaining as much as the next businessman. “I’ll give you twelve and not one penny more, damn you. And the coworker…”

He buzzed the intercom on his desk, saying, “Find Zylus and send him up here, won’t you?”

“Zylus?” Nilesy questioned when Turps released the ‘talk’ button on the intercom, “That’s got to be worth another few percent. He’s the office incompetent.”

Turps eyed him with a slight grin, “You wanted a coworker, you’ve got a coworker. And if you can make a researcher out of him within the month, you’ll get your fifteen percent.”

Nilesy’s eyes set in a determined look and a smile tugged at his mouth, “You’ve got it. I’ll make Zylus into the best god-damn researcher you’ve ever seen. Except me, of course.”

Zylus arrived a couple of minutes later, looking confused and worried that he might be in some kind of trouble.

“Zylus, I’m promoting you to researcher,” Turps said briskly, not giving Zylus much chance to object to his sudden career change. “You’ll be working with Nilesy from tomorrow. He will give you adequate training I’m sure.”

“What?” Zylus asked, having just moved departments so quickly his head was spinning.

“Don’t worry about it. You get a proper job, Nilesy gets a coworker, I get to hire a prettier assistant,” Turps smiled, “It’s a win-win-win situation.”

Kim was finding it hard to stop herself at laughing at the entire conversation. The good part was that it really did seem to be working out for all of them. It was a better outcome than she had originally hoped.

And then, suddenly, as she stood there, she saw them. A thousand spectral people in a great vapour stand surrounded them, like they were on centre stage in the middle of a performance. The crowd cheered, laughed, shouted for more. This was the anomaly that followed Turps, the reason why he was always talking, always laughing. He was the main character on a stage all his own and the crowd only ever wanted more. Kim suddenly suspected that Nilesy’s victory was perhaps not entirely his own, but some of that reflected stage presence. It was eery, yet she felt inflated and larger-than-life. The cheer of the crowd became her cheer and they applauded her for working out another anomaly and for all the detective work she had successfully completed so far. They urged her on, to discover more, to find the real secret of Yogtowers…

“Kim?” Nilesy suddenly said in her face, snapping her out of the reverie, “You were spacing out. We’re done.”

Kim blinked and looked around. She recovered quickly, giving Turps a smile before following Nilesy and Zylus out into the hall. Once the door had closed behind them, Nilesy jumped up with his hands in the air, then spun Zylus around and kissed him on the forehead before skipping off down the hallway in delight. Kim laughed aloud, while Zylus pulled a face and scrubbed his forehead with the back of his hand.

“You did it!” Kim congratulated Nilesy, rushing after him down the hallway, “You totally faced him down!”

“I know!” Nilesy said gleefully, “I didn’t think I could do it but I did!”

They danced in the hallway for a few seconds before they finally collapsed laughing against each other. Zylus looked even more puzzled than ever, but he wisely elected not to say anything, just pressed the button for the lift.

“You know… the thing we were talking about before?” Nilesy said, trying not to be too obvious while Zylus was there. “The matter of… colleague interaction?”

Kim rolled her eyes. The matter of dating Duncan, yes, she did remember.

“I think you should go for it,” Nilesy said with bright eyes, “I think you should. You never know what will happen until you go for it, you know?”

Kim gave a slight smile. She was reminded of the conversation she’d had briefly with Fiona a few weeks before, where she’d given almost the same advice. When Kim thought of all the couples that had sprung up around Yogtowers… why would it be so wrong to try?

“You know what?” she told Nilesy as the lift doors slid closed, “I think I will.”


	9. A Date To Remember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After finally deciding to take Duncan up on his offer of a date, Kim tries to find him to let him know. However, the universe seems to be working against her and keeps throwing up obstacles in her way.

Initially, Kim thought that the hard part would be making a decision. After a night’s sleep though, she was starting to believe that she was wrong about that. When she woke up the next morning, she found herself running around her house like the airheaded main star of her very own cheesy rom-com. Would Duncan ask her out again or would she need to find him and tell him how she felt? What should she wear today if she was going to see him? What if he wanted to go out straight after work? What should she wear if they were going to have a separate date and she had to come home and get changed first? Should she do something with her hair?

Kim looked in her bedroom mirror, with her hair sticking out at odd angles from sleeping, knowing she was overthinking this too much. Surely half the reason that she liked Duncan so much was that she did feel comfortable around him and shouldn’t need to go to absurd lengths to try and impress him. Yet, she did find herself wanting to impress him, somehow. She cursed herself and went to get her morning shower and breakfast. What she needed right now was some sound advice, from a female best friend. She just wasn’t sure who to ask. Kim knew she could talk to Hannah about this kind of stuff, since Hannah was practical and perfectly capable of being blunt when necessary, but then Hannah was friends with Duncan too, which might make the whole thing seem a bit weird for her. Nothing like asking someone for advice on how to bang one of your other friends to make the conversation a bit awkward. And as much as Kim loved Zoey, she felt like trying to get advice from her would probably result in a lot of giggling and awkwardness, since Kim felt like Zoey probably had less experience with this kind of stuff than she did, despite her current relationship with Fiona. It wasn’t as though Kim hadn’t dated before either, it was just… Well, everyone was different, weren’t they? What had worked on past boyfriends wouldn’t necessarily work on Duncan.

Eventually, after drowning herself in the shower for ten minutes, Kim decided to stop running around like a lunatic and just be herself. Maybe a slightly fancier than normal version, but she wasn’t going to go over the top. No matter what they decided to do, she was going to take it in stride. If she did anything else, she may as well turn him down right now. She looked through her closet, the clothes hangers clicking together as she moved them down the rail one at a time, trying to pick what would be the best option. Just something a little nicer than jeans and a t-shirt, that was all she wanted. She finally settled on a skirt with leggings, boots and a black and white long-sleeved t-shirt. Kim examined the results in the mirror critically as she brushed her hair into something resembling tidiness. She looked fine, she tried to tell herself, no, she looked good. She just needed more confidence. It was all about confidence.

“You are Kim Richards,” she said aloud to herself, pointing at her reflection in the mirror, “And any man on god’s green earth would be lucky to have you.”

She hesitated for a moment before facepalming and laughing at herself. But she did feel better.

By the time she was finally ready for work, she ended up leaving about ten minutes later than usual, which had the knock-on effect of getting her caught in the worst of the morning rush hour traffic. By the time she actually got to Yogtowers she was almost twenty minutes late. Too late to have any chance of finding Duncan before work began. She hurried up to her office, apologising to Colin when she got there. Fortunately, she had the kind of job where being late wasn’t the end of the world. As long as she got all her world done by the end of the day, that was the main thing.

“Duncan was looking for you this morning,” Zoey smiled as Kim sat down at her desk. “He said it wasn’t important though.”

It was quite important, thought Kim, but it wasn’t really something that she could go skipping out on work to investigate. She noticed that Ravs was stubbornly avoiding her gaze over in the far corner of the room and she hoped things weren’t going to become awkward now that she knew his secret. It shouldn’t really be a secret anyway, he shouldn’t have to be embarrassed about his relationship. Okay, she didn’t know that they were definitely in a relationship, but no matter what, it was nothing to be ashamed of. She understood not wanting to announce it to everyone at the office, but hiding it altogether…

The morning seemed to drag on as she focused on getting her work done. Now that she had decided to take Duncan up on his date, she just wanted to let him know as soon as possible. Shortly before lunch, Kim left the editors’ office for her usual cooking session with Hannah. However, once she was in the lift, she found herself pressing the button for Level Six rather than Level Eight. She almost didn’t get out the elevator and when she walked along to the artists’ room, she turned back at least twice. The temptation to speak to him was just too strong. She knocked on the door to the artists’ office and looked around, but to her disappointment, Duncan was nowhere to be found.

“I was looking for Duncan,” she explained, her heart sinking a little, “Is he here today?”

The female artist, Nina, looked up at her with a slight eye-roll, “Good luck finding Duncan. He’s never where he’s supposed to be. But he is around here somewhere.”

“Alright, thanks,” Kim said, slouching back off down the corridor, this time taking the lift up to the eighth floor like she was supposed to. She didn’t really know why she expected anything less. Maybe he was visiting Hannah too? Kim brightened at that thought. Although she didn’t want to start talking about dating around Hannah, it wouldn’t be hard to pin Duncan down afterwards, right?

She climbed the stairs to Hannah’s tower quickly. Kim found it significantly easier to climb Hannah’s tower now than she had the first time she had found it. A mixture of repeated stair climbing and training in the server level, no doubt. It was a surprise that an office job had actually managed to make her more physically fit, but then it wasn’t a normal office job.

When she entered the tower Hannah wasn’t there. Only Duncan sat at the kitchen table. He didn’t seem to have noticed her come in. Kim paused in the doorway, watching him for a second. His blond hair, long for a man, hung down in front of his eyes as he looked down at a book on the table. He leant with his folded arms on the table top, emphasising his broad shoulders. His glasses were, as ever, ever so slightly askew, and his face was calm, although every so often his eyebrows furrowed in a brief moment of concentration. He was dressed in his own version of smart, a black and grey checked shirt over his jeans and shoes, although that must just be a coincidence. Finally, he looked up, meeting her gaze with a smile.

“Hi, Kim,” he said, putting down his book, “What’s up?”

Kim moved towards him slowly, feeling like she was gliding. Mentally she smacked herself, trying to remind herself not to act like a schoolgirl falling in love for the first time. It was difficult. New relationships were exciting.

“Hey,” Kim said, leaning on the table next to him. He had put down his book, _A Farewell To Arms_. It seemed like a serious choice for Duncan, who was more of a science fiction guy. “Are you enjoying it?” she asked, indicating the book.

Duncan pulled a face slightly. “I don’t know if you’re really meant to enjoy books about World War One,” he said. “But Lewis told me they have a project coming up soon to do with soldiers in World War Two, so I thought I should read the backstory.”

Kim wasn’t entirely sure if she would call the First World War ‘backstory’ like it was the lore of a videogame, but she decided not to linger on the point. She was just stalling from what she really wanted to tell him anyway.

“Hey Duncan,” she said, “Remember how we were talking the other day?”

“Which day?” Duncan asked, “We talk a lot.”

Kim cursed her inability to speak eloquently and continued on, “The other day, in the studio?”

Duncan’s eyes suddenly lit up, although his expression remained neutral, maybe even a little guarded. “Yeah,” he said quietly, “I remember.”

Of course, that was the moment that Hannah leant over the stairs and waved at Kim, “Hi Kim! What are we making today?”

Kim managed to restrain herself from swearing out loud. Duncan did clearly mouth the word ‘fuck’, but he had his back to Hannah so she couldn’t see. Kim broke out her best smile, not wanting her friend to feel like her presence was completely unwanted. This conversation with Duncan would have to wait.

“I’ll speak to you after,” she promised Duncan, who reluctantly nodded.

Hannah’s new cooking kick was italian, which suited Kim just fine, because it was delicious. They made fresh pizza, covered in mozzarella, feta, tomato, egg and fresh spinach leaves. Duncan eyed it up suspiciously. Kim wasn’t sure how she felt about pizza with what was essentially salad on it either, but Hannah promised them it would be delicious and it was. Even after she had cleared her plate, Kim was still unsure how she felt about salad on pizza. It might be tasty, but she felt it might be immoral somehow.

After a while, Kim stretched back her arms, then pushed her plate forward. “I ought to get back Hannah,” Kim said, with a quick glance at Duncan.

Hannah looked from Kim to Duncan with a slightly wary look, but then her expression softened. Apparently she hadn’t found anything to be suspicious about. “Sure,” she nodded, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

They didn’t start talking until they had left Hannah behind and were walking down the stairs. The tower wasn’t quite wide enough for them to walk side by side, so Kim went in front, with Duncan a step behind her.

“So,” he said, “There was, uh, something you wanted to talk about?”

“Right, yes,” Kim said, stopping so suddenly on the stairs that Duncan very almost walked into her. She turned around to face him, but he was so comically taller standing two stairs above her that she just shook her head and kept walking. “Yeah, there was something.”

She suddenly felt the tingling of static electricity on her arms and neck. For a moment she was confused, but then she realised it was the sensation of the Multilevel Filing System.

“Oh, not now,” groaned Kim, to Duncan’s confusion, as she stuck her arm out into the air. She gripped the tube of paper and pulled it out of the nothingness and into reality. She unfurled it, with Duncan pretending that he wasn’t peeking over her shoulder. All the note said was:

 

_We need you._

  * _Ridge_




“Right now?” Kim sighed. She dithered for a moment, wondering if she should just blurt it all out now just to get everything out, but she knew she had to go. Strife and Ridgedog could be in real danger for all she knew. Before she had even finished her thought, she was already running down the stairs.

“Is everything alright?” Duncan shouted after her in concern.

“Yeah, it is! Just- We’ll talk later, okay? For real!”

She shoved the note into her pocket as she took the stairs two at a time, going as fast as she could while still ensuring that she wouldn’t tumble down and break her neck. She burst out into the corridor and ran past the elevator which was descending beneath her. Instead Kim took the back stairwell, running on and on… She felt quite out of breath, despite her recent improvement in fitness and the fact that she was running downstairs instead of up. However, she managed to catch the lift on the fourth floor and then took it down to the server level.

She pressed in the buttons rapidly on the little door panel and then slipped quickly through the door as it swung open for her.

“Ridge?” she called out, not hearing anything as she ran silently through the banks of servers. A lot of them had been cleared out for repairs after the previous attack, so she quickly realised they weren’t in the main server storage. “Will?”

She heard a noise back towards the main doors, so she turned around and followed the sound. As she approached, she realised the sound was coming from Strife and Ridgedog’s mini staffroom. Once she was outside the door, she stared in angrily, as Strife and Ridge were just talking to each other with cups of coffee. Kim stood there with her hands balls up into fists resting on both hips. She cleared her throat loudly and Will jumped so much that he spilled coffee down his trousers.

“Ah, shit,” Ridge said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, “We managed to take down the apparitions sooner than I thought. Sorry about that.”

“You called her?” Will asked his partner, “I didn’t think it was that bad.”

Kim threw her hands up in the air in frustration, “You have got to be kidding me.”

“Sorry,” Ridgedog apologised again, before smiling, “Come on, it’s not that bad. You just had to come downstairs for a minute. It’s a free work break, isn’t it?”

“A free work break…” Kim muttered angrily, “A free… I am trying to… and then you just… **I was very busy!** ”

Ridge and Will exchanged a worried look and Will held out his hands placatingly, “We’re sorry Kim, you aren’t in trouble with your boss, are you? It’s just that this is important and sometimes we need to call you if we think we might be in extra danger without you…”

Kim sighed, knowing it was selfish of her to make them apologise for trying to keep themselves safe, even if it had proved unnecessary on this occasion. So she’d have to wait a little bit longer to arrange a date with Duncan. That was far preferable to Ridge and Strife not calling her when they needed help and one of them ending up hurt, or worse. “It’s okay. I’m sorry. It’s fine. Call me whenever you think you need me.”

She trekked back up the stairs. She could go and hunt Duncan down right this instant, but it could wait. Besides, she didn’t want to come off as totally desperate. She had been gone long enough from her work, so she hurried back to the editors’ office to keep working until lunch. Once she had sent the files for Martyn’s programming off to Colin, she could relax knowing that she had completed her deadlines for the day. Then she could take her time going to find Duncan and having a well-earned conversation with him.

The others filed off for lunch about ten minutes before Kim was finished, but when she was done she went to catch up with them. She had already eaten lunch with Hannah, so if Duncan wasn’t in the staff room, she was going to go and find him herself. God damn it, if the one day she actually had an important task to carry out was the one day that everyone in this stupid building needed her for something… Kim looked around the staff room, but it was a void of no Duncans. Her editors sat along the table, with Nilesy and Zylus, who seemed to be creating some kind of challenge. More than a dozen sheets of A4 paper were pinned to the walls lining the staff room and Nilesy was standing in the middle of the room with a stopwatch.

“What’s going on?” Kim asked, her curiosity getting the better of her, despite her desire to go and find Duncan instead of hanging around.

“Nilesy is training Zylus,” Zoey said cheerfully, beaming at Kim, “He’s trying to get him down to one minute.”

“One minute?” Kim asked, but Zoey just waved her over to sit at the table. Kim wandered over and plonked herself down, wanting to witness the spectacle. Nilesy spotted her and explained further.

“Kim, remember how Turps said I’d get a better raise if I trained Zylus? Well, I’m getting that raise.” Nilesy looked at Zylus, who was in a stance of concentration, as if he was about to run a 100 metre sprint. Nilesy looked down at his stopwatch, then back up at Zylus, “Are you ready?” Zylus gave a fierce nod, so Nilesy counted down, “Three, two, one… Go!”

“Organise your notes into three distinct categories!” Nilesy yelled, “You have twenty seconds!”

Kim watched in amazement as Zylus started sprinting around the room, rattling off categories, page numbers, paragraph locations and filing systems. Nilesy kept pelting him with questions too, never letting him off the hook for more than a few seconds at a time. By the time he was finished, Zylus collapsed red-faced and panting to the floor. Kim couldn’t help but join in with the others in a round of applause.

“One minute and three seconds!” Nilesy said with glee, brandishing the stopwatch in Zylus’ face, “So close! I swear to god Zylus, you’re going to make me rich!” Nilesy stopped briefly, then added, “Well, you’re going to pay for Netflix anyway!” Kim laughed, quite enjoying Nilesy being passionate about something. Perhaps gaining a raise wasn’t the most noble cause ever, but when it was making him happy it didn’t really matter. He certainly deserved it after all the work he’d been putting in recently. Although Kim hoped Zylus might be receiving one as well, at the rate Nilesy was putting him through his paces. He was going to earn it too before the month was out.

She stayed with her friends until they’d finished eating so as not to seem rude and she let Colin know that she had finished her work so that he didn’t expect her back in a hurry. When they went back to their office, a little after Nilesy had dragged Zylus off for further training, she left the office to go and find Duncan for real. She went up a floor to Level Six, but on her way to the artists’ room, she was accosted by Rythian, who had just walked out of the writers’ office along the hall. Kim repressed the urge to tell him to go away, reminding herself that it wasn’t his fault that she’d been postponed for so long and that he didn’t deserve to be yelled at.

“What’s up?” she asked him. Thankfully Rythian, unlike Ravs, didn’t seem to be having an issue meeting her in the eye at the moment.

“I wanted to say thank you for all the help you gave me when you were researching for my writing,” he said, “I know research isn’t your normal job, but you really came through on my project. I was just talking to Tom and he said that it sounded really promising…” Kim felt herself beginning to blank out from what Rythian was saying. He had a lovely voice, but it was sort of passing over the top of her head right now. Rythian was somewhat infamous for his long speeches and Kim felt that she was about to experience her first one.

“...I’m really excited about the Blackrock Project. So, I just wanted to let you know that.” For a hopeful second Kim thought he was finished, but Rythian plunged on. “And, there was the matter of… that other thing. With me and Ravs. I wanted to thank you for your discretion. I know we haven’t worked together, but you’re clearly a trustworthy person. Zoey and Teep think very highly of you, you know. I’d think to think that I could consider you a friend and I hope that you feel the same way…”

Kim had tuned back in, which was nice since he was saying flattering things about her, but there was still part of her that wished he could say these nice things in a more concise manner. She nodded along, trying not to overly encourage his oration.

“...Anyway, I thought on what you said the other day and I think you are right. I know none of the editors - the people I consider my friends - would care, not once they got over the surprise, but I’m just not sure that it’s wise to mix professional and personal life that way. After all, more people work here than just the editors, yes?”

Kim decided he was probably looking for reassurance from her. Cutting him off, she placed a hand on his arm and looked him directly in the eye. “Rythian, I think you should do whatever will make you and Ravs happy. If you want to be a normal couple who are able to be a couple around their friends, then don’t let anybody ever stop you from doing that. And if you want to keep it separate from your work here, then I won’t blame you for that. Either way, I won’t say a word.”

Rythian paused and then smiled so clearly that she could see the upturn of his lips through the thin purple scarf that was always wrapped around his mouth and chin. He patted the back of her hand with his, nodding slightly. “I knew I could trust you,” he said, “I don’t know exactly what will happen. But thank you.”

Kim gave him a grin, “No worries.”

“I’ll let you get back to work,” Rythian said, as if he had suddenly realised that Kim might have better things to do than hold hushed conversations in the corridors of Yogtowers, “If you ever need me for anything…”

“I’ll let you know,” Kim nodded, slowly beginning to walk away. To her relief, Rythian nodded and walked off in the other direction. Having extracted herself from the conversation, she allowed herself to smile properly. He might go on a bit sometimes, but Rythian was a nice boy. Perhaps it was being quiet most of the time that led to his long speeches. He just didn’t talk for ages and then it all burst out at once.

Kim knocked on the artists’ door for the second time that day, hoping that they didn’t think it was weird that she was always here looking for Duncan. To her delight he was actually there and he extracted himself immediately when he saw that she had come to the door.

“We need to talk,” she said.

Duncan pointed to the little Studio 2 where they had talked previously and Kim nodded, following him in there. Once she had shut the door her pulse raised a little as she realised now they were actually going to discuss… the matter at hand.

“So, what’s going on?” Duncan asked, leaning against a table. Although he was acting cool, Kim could tell that he seemed a little nervous, a little more on edge than usual. She gave him what she hoped was a charming smile, but probably came off more as a nervous grimace. For some reason she was stumbling to find the right words herself. It’s just Duncan, she tried to tell herself. But somehow Duncan wasn’t _just Duncan_ anymore.

“So… right. In Hannah’s tower, earlier, I said if you remembered me talking to you before about… being together in the main studio and you asked me if I wanted to do something…” Kim knew she was prevaricating, but she’d been gripped by the sudden irrational fear that he might turn her down or that all of this had been some kind of cruel joke.

There was a knock at the door and then a black-haired man with an easy grin poked his head around the door. “Hey, are you two using this studio?” he asked.

“Not now Parv!” Duncan and Kim both said in sync. Parv’s grin dropped off his face and he even looked a little hurt.

“Alright, alright, sorry I asked,” he complained, leaving again. Kim and Duncan looked at each other, both breaking out in guilty smiles.

“Go out with me,” Kim said, finally just forcing the words out of her mouth. “Let’s go out, like you said. I thought about it and my answer is yes.”

A wave of relief washed over Duncan’s face to be quickly replaced by a beaming smile. “Awesome.”

“When do you want to go?” she asked.

He thought about it for a moment, then suggested, “Now?”

“Now?”

“Yeah, why not?” Duncan smiled, “I bet you wouldn’t be up here if you still had work to do. I don’t want to set a date and dress up and make it all formal and weird. I like you. Let’s hang out together away from this place.”

Kim had to admit that a spontaneous, casual date sounded way better than come classic dinner at a fancy restaurant. That wasn’t really her scene and she knew it wasn’t really Duncan’s either. “Alright,” she nodded, “Where do you want to go?”

She trusted Duncan to make a better choice of destination than she would. After all, she’d only lived in the area for a few months and she hadn’t had a whole lot of time to get to know Bristol outside of Yogtowers.

Duncan glanced at his phone for the time, which was just after quarter to three. “It’s too early to eat,” he said, “But there’s loads we could do until then.” He gave her a glance, “How well do you know Bristol?”

Kim shrugged. In truth, despite her time here, she barely knew Bristol at all. She commuted in from outside the city centre and she tended to spend her weekends either at home or seeing old friends. If Duncan wanted to ask where she thought they ought to go, she really had no idea. She knew where a few chains were that she passed on her way to work in the morning - Costa, Starbucks, even a Wetherspoons - but she doubted that was more than a tiny fraction of Duncan’s local knowledge. As far as she knew, he’d lived in the area for years.

Duncan picked up on her lack of knowledge from her expression, with a slightly incredulous look. “You’ve been here for months, but you’ve hardly seen the city at all, have you?”

Kim shook her head, giving him another shrug. Duncan stood thoughtfully, considering their options.

“Jeez, where to start,” he said, mostly to himself, “There’s a ton of things you need to do in Bristol, but I guess a lot of them are better in summer.”

Kim poked him in the arm, “It doesn’t really matter, we’re going out, it doesn’t need to be some Bristol sightseeing tour.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Duncan said, slightly apologetically. He thought for a couple of seconds more, then just said, “How about the pub?”

Kim gave him a grin, then said, “Yeah, I can do that.”

Once they had subtly picked up their bags and jackets, they wandered out of Yogtowers and into the cool winter afternoon. Spring would be coming on soon and the days were starting to grow longer again, although it was still generally dark by Kim’s evening drive home. The sky was clear though, so at least there was a blue sky rather than a solid British grey, even if the payoff was that it was even colder. Kim stuck her hands in her pockets to keep warm, although her nose was still red by the time they had walked over a few streets to the pub that Duncan had in mind. It was quite traditional, with wooden bar stools and a dark oak interior.

“Is this your favourite place?” Kim asked Duncan as she followed him into the bar.

“Not my all time favourite,” Duncan explained, “But they have great cider.”

They selected a little booth in the corner and stripped off their outer layer of clothing. Kim wasn’t a big drinker, but she was definitely glad to be out of the cold already.

“Can I buy you a drink?” Duncan asked her, with a silly waggle of his eyebrows.

Kim laughed and said, “I’m driving, but you can buy me a super sexy coke.”

“Sure thing,” he smiled, heading up to the bar. There was no queue so early in the afternoon, so he returned after just a minute, carefully carrying a glass of cola and a pint of cider. Kim took a sip and had a momentary flutter of panic where she realised her nervousness had pushed all the thoughts of conversation out of her head, but fortunately Duncan didn’t seem to suffer from the same trepidation.

He pointed up at the TV, barely audible even though the pub was relatively quiet, which was playing an ad for Mortdecai, a new film that was coming out with a host of stars, Johnny Depp front and centre. “Have you had a chance to see that yet?”

Kim shook her head, “Nah, I probably won’t. I don’t think Johnny Depp has had a good film since Pirates of the Caribbean.”

“Which one?” Duncan asked, “None of them were that great since the first one.”

“The original trilogy wasn’t that bad! But ever since them he just keeps playing different versions of Jack Sparrow…”

Once they had started talking, they fell into conversation easily like they were just back in Yogtowers arguing about films in Hannah’s tower again. They rambled their way across a variety of subjects and two more drinks apiece, but they barely had a moment of silence between them. Although she had spoken to Duncan a lot over the last few weeks, she’d never really had an opportunity to sit with him like this, with nobody else and no time constraints. Either they were with Hannah in her tower or they were on a lunch break, forced to go back to work within the hour. Before she knew it an hour had passed and when she next checked her watch, it was already after five. Time just seemed to slip away while they talked about nothing and everything. The only topic that they avoided was work. Neither of them specifically mentioned it, but they both seemed to get the idea that this was a space for the two of them to talk about anything but Yogtowers.

Eventually Duncan’s stomach gave a low grumble, to which he laughed and said, “Do you want to go grab something to eat? What do you like?”

“Sure,” Kim replied. “I’ll eat whatever. Nowhere too expensive though.”

“Well, there’s a really nice McDonalds just across the street,” Duncan joked.

“Ha ha,” Kim said sarcastically, “No, I think we can do better than that.”

“Alright, no worries,” Duncan said, more seriously, “I know a place in Southville that’s kind of great.”

“Cool,” nodded Kim, “Well, you tell me where to go and we’ll get there.”

They walked back to Yogtowers, which was chillier than their walk to the pub, and picked up Kim’s car from the parking lot, which was now a lot emptier than when they had left. Once they were in the car, Duncan gave her directions. It was a short distance, although it took significantly longer than usual since it was rush hour and they were crossing the city centre. Once they had cleared the worst of the traffic, Duncan directed her into a normal suburban street. There were nothing but rows of terraced houses. Kim was a little confused and was about to point out that she didn’t think there were any restaurants down here when they passed what seemed like just a little cafe or corner shop.

“That was it!” Duncan said, “Park here.” Perhaps seeing her look of doubt, he added, “Don’t misjudge it on how it looks. It’s tiny, but the food is amazing.”

“Well, good things do come in small packages,” Kim said immodestly. She pulled into a space and parked. The little restaurant was already bustling, since it was almost six o’clock.

They were shown to a small table, one of the last few available. There were a mix of couples and groups of friends sitting nearby, including one young couple, no more than sixteen, in their best clothing and sitting very awkwardly at a table, clearly on a date. Kim hoped their date would get better. Thankfully hers was going just fine - better than fine, it was going better than she might’ve hoped.

The menu was just an A4 sheet of paper with the information printed on it, handed to them by a cheerful waiter in casual clothes.

“Fresh menu every day,” he informed them, “We pride ourselves on having whatever is the most fresh.”

They ordered a couple of drinks and then skimmed the menu once the waiter had gone.

“This is proper west country food,” Duncan said, “Bet you’ve not had half of this before.”

The words ‘jellied ham’ floated into Kim’s vision and she agreed, “No, no I haven’t.” Fortunately there were some more normal sounding things on the menu as well. Mind you, having grown up with a lot of east asian cooking, Kim was used to a lot of things that the average British person might also think of as weird. In the end, she chose a salad to start and a seafood main course, while Duncan went with soup and something called ‘braised suckling kid’ which Kim took a moment to realise was a young goat and not actually cannibalism. Doubtful of the menu as she might have been, all the food that was delivered to them was delicious.

Meanwhile, they had a chance to continue their conversation from the pub, about what games they liked, tv shows, their favourite music, anecdotes from their past. Duncan had always been quite mysterious, so it was nice to actually hear stories from his childhood and teenage years - a strange mixture of being a bit of a science nerd who loved video games and being a popular art student who loved nothing more than going to a rave in a muddy field at midnight. Kim didn’t think she was nearly as interesting, but she was, just in a different way. She’d never been terribly popular, since she’d always moved around a lot as a child and was eternally ‘the new kid’ at school, but her experiences of so many countries gave her a unique perspective on things. Duncan, in turn, had never lived more than a hundred miles from the place that he grew up. For all their differences, it was amazing how well they connected.

It had been growing dark when they arrived at the restaurant and now, almost two hours later, the sky was an inky black punctuated by faint white dots. Kim gave a signal to the waiter, who came over and asked if there was anything more that they needed.

“Just the bill, thanks,” Duncan said. The waiter nodded and returned a few minutes later with a small leather pad with their receipt attached to it. Duncan opened his wallet and laid down the full amount, but Kim broke in, “Hey, I can pay my share. I’m a modern woman, you know.”

Duncan looked at her with some amusement, “You don’t need to prove anything.”

“Yeah, well,” Kim said, “I’d feel bad otherwise.”

“You can if you like,” Duncan offered. Kim added a couple of notes, while Duncan reclaimed some of his. Kim knew it was a bit silly, but she hated feeling like she owed people something, even if it meant turning down free food. Duncan, to his credit, was unphased.

As they left the restaurant, Kim looked at her watch. It wasn’t late by any means, but they did have work tomorrow and she needed to drive home. She wasn’t sure she was ready for this date to end though.

“So,” she asked Duncan, “Is there anywhere else you want to show me in Bristol?”

“Yeah, of course! There’s so many I couldn’t show you them all tonight.”

“Is that an invitation to go out again?” Kim teased him.

“Maaaaybe,” Duncan smiled cheekily, leaving no doubt that he meant ‘yes’. Kim grinned back at him. She couldn’t be happier that things had been going well.

“Do you want to leave it for tonight then?” she asked, kind of hoping that he would say no.

Suddenly Duncan broke into an even wider smile. “No, I know somewhere we can go. It’s just the night for it. You’ll love it.”

“Oh yeah?” Kim asked, pleased and interested at the same time, “What is it?”

“I don’t want to tell you!” Duncan grinned, “It’s a surprise!”

Kim rolled her eyes, but she smiled all the same. “Well, then where is it?”

“You’ll need to drive there. But I can give you directions.”

Kim restrained herself from rolling her eyes again. “So you want me to drive somewhere that I don’t know with your directions? Sounds like a prelude to murder if you ask me.”

“Nah, there’s no murder, just fun,” Duncan promised, in a sweet tone of voice. Kim narrowed her eyes in fake suspicion, then stuck out her tongue at him.

“Fine,” Kim agreed, “But they better be some good directions. I hate changing lanes at the last second.”

“I know where I’m going,” Duncan insisted, “It’ll take us like five minutes to get there. Ten tops.”

They climbed into Kim’s car and left the restaurant behind them. Duncan’s instructions were accurate, although the route was not difficult. After a couple of turns down suburban streets, they were out onto a highway for a brief minute before they turned off. The road quickly seemed to leave Bristol behind, as Duncan directed the car along a narrow, twisting road surrounded by green trees and hedges, with large, fancy homes set back from the road.

“Where on earth are we going?” Kim asked. They had only been driving for about ten minutes and Duncan had promised that it wouldn’t take much more than that, but it felt like they had travelled miles already, “Are we leaving Bristol?”

“Nah, we’re not,” Duncan said, “Actually, we’re almost there. Turn right here.”

At the corner they came onto a street that looked a little more urban than the one they had just been on. Kim had only gone forward a couple of hundred metres when Duncan said, “Okay, pull over here! This is it!”

Kim had no idea what he was talking about - there didn’t seem to be anything special around here at all, just a few businesses closed for the night - but she followed his instruction anyway. Without pausing to explain anything more, Duncan let her come to a stop, then unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car. Kim turned off the engine and got out as well.

“Wait!” she said, “Come on, I don’t get it? Where are we?”

Duncan pointed further down the road and said, “Look, it’s the Humber Bridge. It’s right ahead of us.”

Kim squinted slightly and realised that there was a bridge just a short distance ahead, its large arch crossing high above the road in front of them. Kim hadn’t seen it since she had been paying attention to the road closer to her and it had been dark. She had to admit, she was a little confused why Duncan had been so excited to bring her to a bridge at night. It was pretty nice, but Kim didn’t really know enough about architecture or engineering to be especially impressed with it. Maybe this was Duncan’s science nerd side showing through again.

Perhaps sensing her lack of excitement, Duncan continued, “It’s really something, come on and I’ll show you. Standing here doesn’t do it justice.”

Having already followed him this far, Kim saw no reason to stop trusting him now. She walked by his side on the footpath, huddled into her jacket slightly because of the cold. The clear sky meant for a freezing night, but it made the stars shine brighter. No clouds made for a lot less light pollution, which there was significantly less of up here than in the city centre. For that alone, Kim was already quite pleased with their little trip up here.

The rocky walls of the gorge fell away on either side in front of them, leaving only the bridge suspended out over a long drop. Duncan took a few steps ahead of her onto the bridge, then looked back to her with a smile.

“Come and look. It’s brilliant.”

Kim crossed the space between them and looked out over the side of the bridge. The view was so gorgeous that she almost gasped. What looked like all of Bristol lay spread out below them, thousands and millions of tiny lights that could almost have been a reflection of the bright stars above. If she half-closed her eyes, it gave the illusion that she was suspended somewhere between the stars and the earth, not quite part of either.

“It’s beautiful,” she said quietly. Without taking her eyes from the view, she reached out and put her arm around Duncan’s waist, closing the gap between them. She’d sort of been waiting to do that all night, she just hadn’t realised until now. Without a hesitation, Duncan wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer. Finally, Kim took her eyes off the scenery and instead looked up at Duncan’s face, palely illuminated by the light of the moon above. He gave her a new smile, a bit different to the smiles he had given her before, as if he was seeing her properly for the first time, or maybe it was that she was only seeing _him_ properly for the first time. As their gazes locked, they drifted closer towards each other, as if it were inevitable, like meteors caught in each other’s gravity until they collided. Suddenly she was close enough that his warm breath washed the cold air away from her face and then their lips met in a kiss, with Kim standing on her toes and Duncan leant down towards her. It didn’t feel like fireworks, because fireworks were cold and distantly beautiful, while this was close and warm and she could touch him and run her fingers through his hair and feel his hot breath on her cheeks as he gently tugged her bottom lip between his. She couldn’t say how long it lasted, but it was long enough for her legs to get sore and for her to feel like she was coming up for air when they finally separated. The rush of blood to Kim’s cheeks was enough to warm her face up, but she was glad to see that she wasn’t the only one with a red face.

She struggled to find the right thing to say, but in the end it seemed best to say nothing at all. She took his hand and they walked the length of the bridge and back, both content to walk in silence as long as they were together. All too soon they had arrived back at Kim’s car.

“I guess I should drive you home now,” Kim said, with more than a hint of regret, “Since we have work tomorrow.” It felt like it was too soon for this to end, it wasn’t even late at night, but Kim didn’t want to stay out so late that she was driving home in the early hours of the morning. Not when she had to get up at seven for her commute back to work. All the same, she cursed herself for being sensible, but she reminded herself that there would be plenty of other dates, as long as Duncan felt the same way. He had to, didn’t he? That kiss had to mean something.

It only took a few minutes to reach Duncan’s riverside apartment, most of which was taken up with him giving Kim directions. Getting from the bridge back to his flat involved a trickier route than reaching the bridge had been.

When she drew up in front of the block where Duncan lived, she turned the engine off again. A subconscious sign, perhaps, that she was not eager to drop him off and get driving again. Duncan looked around and said innocently, “You know, it’s not too late. You could come and watch a movie. If you like.”

There was part of Kim that knew what ‘watching a movie’ might entail, but it was an extremely small part of her that was immediately quashed by the rest of her who was feeling as giddy as a schoolgirl experiencing her first crush. “Yeah, I could do that,” she said, with sparkling eyes.

Duncan’s flat was more expensively decorated than Kim would have expected from the plain brick exterior. He lived on the top floor of the four-storey building, with nice views over the Bristol waterfront, even if it didn’t quite compare with the view from the bridge. His apartment was quite minimalistic, but modern, with a large corner couch and a reclining chair in front of a TV and quite the collection of games. On one wall there was a set of bookshelves filled with a variety of books, DVDs and memorabilia, on another there was a large abstract painting of brightly coloured songbirds, and on the other side of the room there was a small balcony overlooking the water. Further doors led into a modest but well-fitted kitchen and, presumably, the bathroom and bedroom. It was an impressively spacious apartment for a one-bedroom, maybe even a two-bedroom.

“Do you have a flatmate?” Kim asked, looking around, “It’s a really nice place you have.”

Duncan shook his head, “No, it’s just me. Bedroom, kitchen, living room, bathroom, office. It’s quite neat.”

Kim nodded. If he could afford the space to keep his own little office or studio, then all the better for him. She wandered over to the glass doors that led out onto the balcony, looking out at the river. Duncan followed her over and opened the door, allowing them to step out onto the balcony. It was empty except for a small potted tree in one corner.

“It’s not quite the Humber Bridge,” Duncan said, referring to the view, “But I like it.”

“I like it too,” Kim nodded. She always appreciated scenery, although she knew it was a luxury that a lot of people couldn’t afford. It had grown colder even since their walk on the bridge and Kim shivered. Duncan looked at her with slight concern.

“Are you cold?”

Kim gave him a distinctly cheeky look. “What, do you want to warm me up?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say no,” Duncan admitted.

Kim stepped closer, feeling more bold, “I think I’m going to kiss you again, Duncan Jones.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say no,” Duncan repeated, but this time with a huge smile on his face. And they did kiss, until Kim really did feel too cold and pulled him back inside. Then they kissed inside, to warm up, until things felt quite steamy. Kim wasn’t generally someone to fool around on a first date, not because she was opposed to the idea, but rather because she tended to feel a bit awkward and uncomfortable around someone that she didn’t know very well. But with Duncan, it felt like they should have been doing this all along. Everything just fell into place.

It was Kim who started it really, when she began unbuttoning Duncan’s shirt down to the waist. That was the point of no return. “Do you need to go home tonight?” Duncan asked her, looking her plaintively in the eyes.

“No,” she said, decisively, “I don’t have to leave.”

Then, before she knew it, clothes were falling to the ground and they stumbled their way into Duncan’s bedroom while trying not to break contact with each other. What started as sweet and slow became frantic and hot. She wanted him and she revelled in the knowledge that he wanted her just as badly. And the weird part was that it wasn’t weird at all, even though it was Duncan, her coworker and friend. He made her feel sexy and beautiful as he kissed every part of her and she returned his affection just as tenderly. The sex was silly and unpoetic and wonderful, and when it was over they lay wrapped around each other as if to show they could not be more tangled up in each other. Kim just felt at peace, for the first time in a long time. She fell asleep easily in his arms, enveloped in the heat of his body,

The next morning she awoke late, after the sunrise, with golden light streaming in through a crack in the curtains. It fell exactly on Kim’s face, making it seem later in the morning than it was, and so she panicked when she woke up. Thinking she was late for work, she flailed and tried to get out of bed, forgetting in her momentary confusion where she was. She smacked Duncan in the head before she remembered, jerking him unpleasantly from the land of dreams, although the smile that spread across his face when he opened his eyes to see her next to him implied that reality was a nice place for him right now. “Hey,” he sighed in his sexy early-morning growl.

Kim smiled at him affectionately, brushing the hair out of his sleepy eyes. There was never any certainty when it came to relationships, especially new relationships, but Kim felt about as secure as she could be. Whatever troubles that might lie ahead of them, out of anybody that she knew, Kim trusted Duncan to make everything alright.

 

 


	10. An Answer Revealed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim goes to work the day after her date with Duncan, but finds her ordinary work day interrupted. Turps had a special task for her, but it eventually results in her finally getting an answer rather than a new mystery.

It was called ‘the walk of shame’, wasn’t it? When you came in to work the next morning in the same clothes because you had stayed the night at a guy’s house and hadn’t been home to change? However, Kim didn’t feel one bit ashamed when she walked into Yogtowers later that morning. In fact, it was a bit of a struggle to keep herself from whistling and skipping on the way to her office. She’d grabbed a shower and breakfast at Duncan’s before they parted ways to arrive at the office separately to avoid suspicion. They hadn’t had time to talk about what they were exactly or if this was going to be a relationship, a generally awkward conversation that Kim didn’t mind avoiding for the time being, but until they had, they had agreed it was probably best to keep it to themselves. Not that Kim was about to run and tell the office that she had spent the night with Duncan anyway. She imagined her friends would be happy for her, if they cared at all, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t poke fun at her about it.

Nonetheless, she was a very happy person when she sat down at her desk the next morning. She greeted her coworkers with an enthusiasm that raised an eyebrow between Teep and Ravs - Zoey, of course, was never suspicious when somebody was happy - and sat down at her desk to crack on with her editing. Her work flew by at speed, although she frequently found herself having to watch back the footage she’d just edited to check that it made sense, since her mind kept drifting to different things. She kind of wanted to smack herself for being so silly and soppy, but she was enjoying it far too much to give into her cynical side. Not for the moment anyway.

It was only mid-morning when Turps rushed into the room, which even made Ravs sit up a little straighter in his seat. A visit from Turps was rare since he was usually so busy with the Talent, the other content producers and the business side of Yogtower. Kim didn’t think he’d been in the editors’ office since the first day when he had given her the tour. He was still halfway through a conversation into his phone, which he abruptly hung up after setting his eyes on Kim.

“Hello Kim, I’m afraid I find myself in need of your help,” he said, all smiles, but he was clearly worried underneath that exterior. “I need you to fill in today.”

“Fill in for who?” Kim asked. Did he want her to work in research again? Or was there some other task that he had in mind. Good god, he wasn’t talking about the empty position of his secretary, was he? She was an editor, not a secretary. There were several admin staff available if he needed that kind of work done.

“I’ll explain, but there’s no time to argue. Come on.”

Kim dragged herself to her feet, giving Colin an apologetic look. He didn’t look best pleased and she wasn’t entirely surprised. The amount of time she’d spend at her actual job in the editors’ office had been quite erratic recently, between the time she’d taken off work when she was ‘sick’, the time Hannah had pulled her out for the afternoon, the days she’d spent working with Nilesy… Colin was probably wishing he’d been given a more reliable member of staff.

When they were out in the corridor, Turps finally went into more detail. “I need you to be a presenter today. Big problems over at Network Polaris and they won’t let Brooke go. We’re already late for filming, so we’re taking whoever we can get.”

Brooke would be… Dodger? The co-presenter for YogNews? Kim spluttered and almost choked as she tried to answer Turps in her surprise. “What? Why me? I don’t- I’m an editor, not a presenter! You have lots of people around here that are used to being on camera, why me?” Kim had no idea what had possessed Turps to think that she would be a suitable replacement, of all people. What about Martyn or Hannah? Or even someone out of Hat Films, they were supposed to be the Talent after all. She was content working behind the scenes and she hadn’t even been doing that for very long.

“You’ve worked as a journalist, haven’t you?” Turps said, as they waited on the elevator, “You know how to report.”

“Yeah, with writing, in a magazine!” Kim protested. Okay, she’d done pieces to camera once or twice in her career, but that had been months ago and she was hardly adept. Certainly she was nowhere as professional as so many other people in this very building.

“You’ll be fine,” Turps assured her, “Besides, this wasn’t my idea. This came from higher up. Simon ordered it.”

Kim so stunned that she paused walking for a moment and then had to hurry after Turps to catch up with him. Someone even higher up had told Turps to choose her? Simon Lane, the co-owner of the entire network? Kim didn’t even know what to think. Had he been browsing the personnel files and thought her journalism experience qualified her? Or was this some strange flight of fancy? Did he see himself as a star-maker, plucking people from way down the corporate ladder and thrusting them into the limelight? Kim had never even met him before. If she ever did, she wasn’t sure if she should be thanking him or telling her off. It would depend on whether she managed to make a fool of herself in front of the entire cast and crew that would be shooting YogNews.

“Strippin will be there though, won’t he?” Kim asked in trepidation, “He’ll be carrying it, won’t he?”

Turps gave her a smile, “Relax! Just be casual. There’s a teleprompter, so you won’t even have to memorise most of your lines. Trust me on this - Simon has never been wrong before.”

Kim didn’t believe that, but then she guessed that you didn’t get to own a multimillion dollar company by making mistakes. Her palms were already feeling quite sweaty. It was typical, just when she was starting to feel like her life was becoming less complicated and she’d had a nice morning editing and daydreaming... Turps had to come in and dump a whole new problem on top of her. She certainly wasn’t in happy daydream land anymore. She was feeling a bit nauseous actually.

The lift doors opened onto the main studio floor. The crew were shuffling around, making adjustments, while Strippin sat alone at the YogNews desk, oddly solitary without the little bubbly american girl by his side. Kim had barely stepped out of the lift before Turps was striding ahead, announcing the change of plans to everyone in earshot. Almost immediately Kim was set upon by crew, who started telling her where to stand, where to look and began setting up their cameras around her. Kim began to suspect that part of the reason for her selection was actually her height; thanks to the similarities between herself and Dodger, the crew had to make very minimal adjustments. No sooner than they had finished, a makeup girl was ushering her to a chair and asking her questions about her cleansing routine.

“I mean, I wash my face,” Kim offered, unhelpfully. She didn’t generally wear makeup unless it was a special occasion, and even then she rarely went beyond eyeliner and mascara. She had heard of things like contouring, but she wasn’t entirely sure what it was or what it was supposed to do. She’d always been a tomboy and when she’d finally come around to the idea of makeup in her late teens, she had realised she was just awful at applying it. Sure, she could have spent months practicing… but she was lazy and there were more enjoyable things to do, like 17-hour marathons of Mario Kart and devouring entire seasons of Next Generation. Nowadays when she wore anything heavy like foundation, she just thought she looked weird.

“No, cleanser, not washing!” the makeup girl said in horror. She did have extremely nice makeup on, Kim could see, so no doubt she was very good at her job, and Kim knew that makeup was a necessity under studio lights to stop you looking like a complete ghost.

“Just… do what you think is best,” Kim said, throwing up her hands and deciding that leaving it to the professionals would be the best course of action under the circumstances. She closed her eyes and several minutes passed as the makeup guru practiced her art. When she opened her eyes and looked in the handheld mirror that the girl passed to her, Kim had to admit that she did look like a very glamorous version of herself. It just wasn’t quite _her_. But there was no time to worry about any of that, because the minute that she was done, Tom was directing her over to the news desk and handing her a copy of the script.

“Just read it over a couple of times to familiarise yourself with it,” he said, “But don’t worry about memorising it. You’ll be fine.”

With that he buzzed off to the cameras and suddenly the blur of activity around her ceased. Strippin was sitting next to her and he appeared a little grumpy. “Thanks for filling in here,” he said, sounding genuine despite his slight scowl. Kim took that to mean he was annoyed at the situation, rather than her specifically.

“I’m sorry that I had to,” she said, “Will Dodger be back soon?”

“I don’t know,” Strippin said with an angry edge to his voice, “The stupid network… well, it doesn’t matter. She’s only across town.” He went back to looking over his own script, but Kim could understand his disappointment. If he was used to working with his girlfriend, it was hardly a joy to have Kim unexpectedly turn up in her place one day. Not that Kim had had much choice in the matter either, but she did understand.

She spent the next few minutes browsing her script and saying any complex sentences repeatedly in her head so that she wouldn’t mess them up. As much as Tom and Turps had told her not to worry about memorising the script, she still found herself chanting little phrases in her head, attempting to remember the correct order of the words. Kim had never had to read off an autocue before, so she wasn’t sure if it would be easy to read.

Strippin sensed her nervousness as she sat there fidgeting with her script. “Don’t worry about it,” he told her, “You’re not on stage. We usually have to do a couple of takes anyway.”

“Everyone keeps saying not to worry,” Kim said, “But I’ve never done this before. I’m sorry I’m not a more experienced presenter.”

Strippin laughed, waving away her concern, “It doesn’t matter, I told them I’d work with anyone except _the Talent_. They can go fuck themselves. Just relax. The most important thing is to relax.”

Kim tried to keep that in mind when she stepped up to her spot a few minutes later. All of this was new to her. Fortunately the autocue wasn’t as difficult as she had feared it might be. Kim was a quick reader, so she was always a step ahead of the line she needed to say. Relax, the key was to relax… Remembering Strippin’s advice, she tried to talk as if the camera was an actual person, someone that she was having an actual conversation with rather than coldly addressing. She pictured her co-editors in the place of the crew, as if this was just them having another chat around the lunch table. With that image in her mind, she found it almost easy. Tom’s smile at the end of the first take was enough to convince her that she wasn’t doing too badly after all.

“Not bad, Richards, not bad,” he nodded, watching the take back on his monitor. “Let’s go one more time for the second angle. Then we’ll go to the next part at the desk.”

After that everything went white. It was like someone had draped a cloud across her mind, a light, bright whiteness, that seemed to take her back to being a young girl playing hide-and-seek under the drying bedsheets on the washing line in the back garden of her childhood home. It was a nice memory to zone out on. She recognised that externally she was acting her part, but it didn’t seem like something she needed to concern herself with. Occasionally she surfaced with a blushing face to find that she had just stuttered over a line or screwed up her speech, but then she resubmerged into her dreams and the action flowed on effortlessly around her. She never even needed the autocue - the words just flowed through her and out of her mouth. Strippin was excellent as usual, giving no hint once the cameras turned to him that he was disappointed that Dodger couldn’t be there. At one point their jokes even raised a chuckle from the crew behind the cameras and before Kim knew it, she was signing off.

“I’ve been Kim.”

“And I’ve been Strippin.”

“Thanks for watching. Stay classy, yognaughts.”

Kim blinked widely as the sound of applause roused her from the happy world of memories and brought her screeching back to the studio. That last line hadn’t even been on the script, she’d just thrown it in and apparently they’d liked it. After that first take, the spirit of the role had taken her and she’d ran away with it. But on all accounts, it had been a resounding success. A broad smile crossed her lips as she cottoned on to the fact that she’d actually done a good job. Tom crossed the floor towards her and Strippin, then shook her hand with a delighted look on his usually lackadaisical face.

“I thought you hadn’t presented before? Turps said you were a complete beginner and I told him it was a horrible idea.”

Kim wasn’t sure whether that was a compliment or not, but after a moment she decided this was her being praised for her work. “I am pretty new at this, I guess the occasion called out to me or something,” she offered as a means of explanation. She wasn’t entirely sure what had happened either, but if she had to guess, she’d say it was probably related to the anomaly of the strange audience that followed Turps around everywhere.

“It doesn’t matter what it was,” Tom said, with the closest thing she’d ever seen to a smile on his cynical face, “It means we actually have a reliable substitute for Dodger if Polaris can’t sort their shit out. Well done, Richards.” He nodded at Strippin, then added, “You too, Sam, of course.”

Kim released a long sigh of relief. She’d done it! She’d actually managed to get through it all without fucking up. Strippin gave her a pat on the shoulder as he got up from the table. Everyone else was already bustling about with their next task. A quick reminder that no matter how well you did, there was always more to be done at Yogtowers. Kim didn’t mind, she preferred not to be the centre of attention anymore now that the performing spirit had now left her. When she was sure that there was nothing else she needed to do, she quietly slipped away. At first she was only planning on going back to her office, but when she reached the lift she was seized by the notion of going up instead. Sips’ museum lay just two floors above her, but she had been too nervous to return ever since the day she had met Al Smiffy there. Kim had to admit that she was still intimidated by him, but she felt a lot more confident now than she had a few weeks ago. Between her date with Duncan and then nailing her task to present YogNews, she felt like she could do anything right now. She just had to dare to try.

She rang the elevator and pressed the button that would take her up to floor eleven. Even with her new found confidence, she held her breath when the doors opened. Fortunately nobody was there and Kim breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped through the lift doors. There was only a small antichamber, with two double doors ahead. The frosted glass panels revealed nothing but darkness beyond. Kim steeled herself and wished that she had her sword with her. She could do this. It wasn’t the museum she was scared of, so much as whatever anomalies might lie beyond. She’d experienced too much of Yogtowers now to expect it just to be an ordinary room.

Gingerly she pushed open the door, revealing the dark room beyond. In the light from the corridor outside, she could see it was a long, narrow room, bare except for the display cases placed every few metres. Each display case was lit with a dim bulb. The room faded into darkness a short distance in front of her, with just those little patches of yellow light to reveal how far back the room stretched. It was beyond silence, not just an absence of sound, but as if there was heavy soundproofing that absorbed all noise. Once she had closed the door behind her, she could hear nothing at all, not even her own footsteps on the ground. She thought she was alone, but here in the silence and the darkness, she had the uneasy feeling that anything could be out here.

She walked over to the first exhibit, walking softly despite the lack of noise, just in case something else could hear even though she couldn't. The first display case just held a large picture of a man from the shoulders up. He was pale, with a faintly grey pallor - although that may have just been the lighting - and very short dark hair, perhaps balding, although most of his head was hidden under a large black baseball cap and an even larger pair of headphones with a mouthpiece. His expression was unimpressed, even bored, which seemed strangely in contrast with the stories she had heard about him, although his eyes were dark and warm. Kim held her hand to the glass, without quite touching it. The picture was labeled 'Sips' and underneath that '1980-2013'. So this was the elusive Sips. Clearly whoever had created this memorial did not share in Sjin's conviction that Sips was still alive. Perhaps that was why Sjin had refused to come here.

Kim moved on to the next case, which was filled with a huge collage of art featuring Sips, mostly from fans, but some more professional pieces as well. The case was titled 'Dearly loved by his fans'. Kim gave a small smile, but it was tinged with sadness. This was the memorial for a missing person after all, she didn't know what was expected it to be other than sad.

The next case read 'Dearly loved by cast and crew'. Inside there was another collage, this time of pictures of all the original crew of Yogtowers. The main piece was a really old picture, taken back when the station first started. The skinny, dark haired man with glasses was Lewis Brindley, barely more than a teenager, with her arm around a large ginger man with a slightly wispy beard who had to be Simon Lane. He looked oddly familiar, although Kim was sure she'd never met Simon before. Perhaps he had a relative that worked in the office? At the centre of the picture was a younger Sips, who looked remarkably similar to his older pictures, and cuddled up closely to him was Sjin, his signature beard barely more than stubble and a huge grin on his face. On the other side of Sips, Kim recognised Duncan with a shock of delight. He actually had a short, stubby ponytail and he looked no more than eighteen. He was wearing a white coat and goggles on his forehead, like he had just arrived from a high school science class. Next to him was Hannah, between Duncan and Lewis. She looked even younger than Duncan, although her expression was determined and fiery as she looked at Lewis. Kim chuckled to herself. If she hadn’t been dating Lewis when that picture was taken, she must have started dating him a short time later. That was the expression of a girl who knew what she wanted.

The next case appeared blank at first sight, but it was titled ‘Sips in action’. Pressing a button caused a projector to flicker into life a few seconds later and audio to start up. Kim jumped in fright, as it was so clear in the otherwise soundless room that it was as though the voices were coming from right beside her ears, even though she wasn’t wearing headphones. She looked around, but it was definitely still only her in the room. Kim watched the series of clips that started up for several minutes. She laughed aloud more than a few times, but they were weird soundless laughs that she couldn’t hear. Fortunately the video took her mind off of the strange lack of sound. Sips had definitely been a star, the best the station had ever seen. Despite her recent run-ins with the trio, Kim could admit that Hat Films were funny on camera, but they were still nothing compared to the master. When the clips ended, Kim sighed with disappointment. There would be no more funny videos from Sips now that he was gone.

Moving further into the room, she lost herself in the exhibits of the museum. There was a display case that showed examples of all of the merchandise he’d ever sold and a stall that read out his staff biography, but it was a boring, clinical description. It detailed the number of videos he’d made, his greatest hits, the awards he had won… but it didn’t mention who were his best friends, his relationship with Sjin, anything personal. No wonder Sjin didn’t want to come here. This museum didn’t reveal anything to Kim that she couldn’t have learned from a quick internet search. For a museum supposedly created by his coworkers and friends, it was surprisingly impersonal.

The next display case was small, but brightly lit up, and it contained only one item: a New York Yankees black snapback. Kim immediately placed it as the one from the picture of Sips. It was odd that it was here, but she guessed it must have been left in his office when he disappeared. It looked like it had been his favourite hat, so it was odd that he would have left it behind. It was a shame that it was sitting here in a glass case. Kim felt like perhaps Sjin should have it.

The case after that contained a large selection of merchandise, some of it branded 'Sips', but the majority of it branded as 'Official Sipsco Merchandise'. In an adjoining case, there was a collection of similar merchandise, but that all seemed to have flaws. Some misspelled 'Sipsco' as 'Sipco', some had wonky stitching or weird colour palettes. A little card on the stand explained: 'Sipsco produced a variety of successful products under the management of Sips. However, his hobby was for collecting fakes and rip-offs of his merchandise, which he collected in his office.' Kim smiled slightly at that. It seemed like something he would do, something a little more personal in this exhibit.

Now that she had walked quite far into the room, she could see that it turned around a corner in the darkness ahead of her. There could be anything ahead, but Kim was feeling more confident now. If there was anything on this level, surely she would have discovered it by now; or rather, surely it would have discovered her. Perhaps this otherworldly silence was all that existed here, which was weird enough on its own really. It was definitely an anomaly of some kind.

Despite reassuring herself, Kim still left a flutter of trepidation in her stomach when she looked around the corner. There were more display cases leading away to the far side of the room, but they were not what caught her attention first. Right at the far end of the room, there was a large oval on the wall that emitted a vibrant purple light, almost the same colour as the sword that she had been given down on the server level. Kim couldn’t help but be drawn towards it. It was so swirly... so purple…

The closer she walked, the more detail she could make out. It appeared like a spiral of swirling of chemical clouds, hung on the wall like a painting. It was bright enough to bathe her body in a purple light as she approached. The vortex of purple cloud seemed to twist off into forever, as if it went far beyond the thickness of the wall that it was mounted upon. It looked as if it might be cold or very hot, definitely not something that she should be getting on her skin. Yet, she found herself reaching out her hand towards it…

"Don't touch it!" snapped a voice so severely that Kim snatched back her hand and clutched it to her chest. The remonstration was all the more harsh because she had only ever heard that voice laughing and joking around, never angry.

"Sips?" she questioned, peering at the darkness around her. Suddenly the spiral quivered at its very centre and then flattened out as smooth as glass, the angry purple swirls retreating to the very edges. For a moment she saw only her own face reflected in a perfect mirror before the mirror turned to clear glass and a face popped into view so suddenly that Kim jumped back.

"Hello?" Sips said, looking at her like this was a perfectly normal conversation on two sides of a glass window, not some otherworldly portal. "Listen, that’s rule number one around here, _Buster Brown_ : Don't touch the portal."

"I- I won't," Kim promised, "Is that- is that happened to you?" Kim shuttered over her words in shock. Sips was dead, or so she had thought, yet here he was. Maybe not here in this reality, but a moving, talking version through whatever anomaly this was. Suddenly she realised that she could hear her own voice for the first time in minutes. Whatever the creepy silence had been about, it didn’t affect her now.

“Yeah, sucked through a portal, heck of a way to go,” Sips said, his voice returned to its usual relaxed tone. “Makes a good story. Or it would, if anybody believed me.”

“You can’t come back?” Kim asked. She was still filled with the desire to touch the cloud that slowly looped around the edges of the glass - if it was indeed glass - but it was easier to restrain herself when she had a voice talking to her.

Sips actually laughed, “No way back. The opening on my side is smaller than a picture frame.” He seemed awfully blasé about the whole thing, as if being sucked through a portal for all eternity was just something that happened to him every other Friday.

“So where are you?” Kim asked, thinking that was the obvious next question. From what she could see it looked like an ordinary office. She was looking on sideways at Sips’ desk, which had a normal computer on top, as well as a bottle of mountain dew, a carton of chocolate milk and a half-eaten bag of doritos. On the wall behind the computer was, for some reason, a large, detailed, geographical map of South America. The wall opposite that held some shelves with a variety of memorabilia as well as several pairs of sunglasses and a picture of a pretty woman holding a toddler in dungarees. All in all, it looked like any office that could easily exist in her own reality. Kim would have expected a portal to transport him to some alien realm, not just another version of the ordinary world. Even Hannah’s tower had an otherworldly feel to it.

“Earth,” shrugged Sips, “Another earth. Or the same earth, in a different reality.” He gave a slight grunt of frustration, “Jesus Kim, don’t come in here asking me difficult questions. I don’t have a handle on this shit.”

Kim felt a bolt of shock when Sips said her name. “I- I never told you my name was Kim,” she said uneasily.

“Well, duh, we work together,” Sips said dismissively, as if she was crazy, then he shook his head. “Oh riiiight. Not in your world. You work at Yogtowers here too, but it’s different. Really different. I just remember both worlds.” Sips let out a sigh, “I said don’t ask me difficult questions.”

“No, no, tell me what happened,” Kim said eagerly. As bad as he was at forming a straightforward answer, it seemed like Sips did understand it. Or, at least, somebody had taken the time to explain it to him, even if he didn’t comprehend it all for himself.

“Alright, okaaay,” he drawled, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like ‘pain in my ass’ before holding his hands up, “Okay. Basically, I fell in a portal one day. It was all Sjin’s fault, as usual. He got me a Sips Co. Red Matter Timepiece™ and I said to him, ‘Gee, Sjin, isn’t red matter dangerous?’ And he said, ‘No, it’s fine, I’ve used it before’. Well, first time I set the alarm, it opened up a portal to Dimension X. Except, there was already a me living here, so now I’m sort of both. I remember living in your world and in this one, but at the same time. It’s something to do with… aw hell, I don’t know what kind of science shit this is, Lewis tried to explain it to me, Captain Tryhard Scientist, and you know what he’s like.”

Kim didn’t really know what Lewis was like, seeing as she had never met him, although it seemed like Sips was suggesting that she was familiar with him in the other reality. “Are you saying that you merged with another version of yourself?” Kim asked, when she thought she’d managed to wrap her head around Sips’ explanation of events. She wondered if Sjin knew that it was his present that had caused the event - hopefully not, otherwise he was probably wracked with guilt.

“Yep. Now I’m a real cool guy who makes videos on the internet.”

“On the internet? We don’t have a station? But there’s still a Yogtowers? And I work there?”

Sips pulled a slight face, “We have a network, it’s not the same thing exactly. But yes, there’s a Yogtowers and you make videos and put them on the internet just like me. We’re not a massive deal in this world, but it’s not so bad.”

That was something Kim couldn’t quite imagine, herself in a different reality. She decided firmly never to touch the portal, never mind how tempting it might be to do so. She doubted that putting videos on the internet was quite as glamorous as working at a giant office tower at one of the biggest stations in Britain, if not the world. “But you were a star here…” she said quietly. She didn’t understand how Sips could just be so okay with all of this. If it was her, she thought she’d be trying everything possible to get back to her own reality and her old life.

“Hey, hey, don’t you go feeling sorry for me,” Sips said reproachfully. “Everything is great. I get to come in and play video games for a living. There’s no pressure, I don’t need to be a star, I’m just old Sipsy. Besides,” he said, lowering his voice slightly, “I have a son here. You can’t understand. I have a son.”

“Is that him?” Kim asked, nodding towards the picture on his shelving unit. Sips’ usually unemotional face formed into a true smile as he showed picked it up and showed it to her.

“You gotta remember, there’s half of me that remembers this life. I got married, I have a family and we do family stuff on weekends. It’s faaaantastic. Is it a bit weird that I have memories of a different world? Sure. Maybe it’s all in my head and I’m just crazy, I’ve thought of that. But either way, I like it here. I have commitments here. I won’t leave them even if I could.”

Kim perked up with a smile of her own, listening to Sips explain his situation. Although she couldn’t even imagine leaving her entire life behind, Sips was clearly happy. That was all that mattered at the end of the day, wasn’t it? Except, there were people here that weren’t happy. Kim couldn’t help but ask, “But what about Sjin?”

Sips’ ears turned red, which seemed to be the closest he came to actually blushing. He scratched at the back of his neck, thinking of the right words. Then he coughed and finally spoke up, “Okay, I love that big dumb bastard, alright? It’s weird to see him here and have him talk about his girlfriend and he has no idea what happened on your side. Makes me feel a bit creepy, because half of me here doesn’t think about him that way either. But I can’t forget about it. Is he still alright? I knew he’d be okay, I knew he’d move on eventually… But he’s never even come to visit… Not that I need him to. I’m not some big dumb babby. I can take care of myself just fine.”

Kim thought about it for a moment. Sjin had never been here, he’d told her as much herself, but from the sincere way he had spoken to her, she couldn’t imagine him not coming if he knew that Sips was here. It had to be that he didn’t know. There was no other explanation. How could nobody have ever told him? Didn’t people know that Sips was here? Her coworkers downstairs didn’t, but someone had to. What about Smiffy? He’d been up at the museum before, she’d seen him here.

“He’s doing okay. He got promoted. I think he still thinks about you a lot.”

Sips nodded, but then seemed eager to change the topic. He stretched his arms, then cleared his throat. “You know Kim, I need to record here. So do you, the you that is here anyway. It’s a minecraft war with the big old Flux Buddies.”

Kim spluttered again, “What?”

“That’s your series. You and Duncan - Flux Buddies?” he gave a slight eye roll, “Whatever, you chose it. Or Duncan did. The pair of you, fluxing away.”

Kim coloured quite rapidly. Maybe it was just a joke that Flux Buddies suspiciously like… maybe it was just an ostentatious sign that alternate reality Kim and Duncan were getting along just fine.

“Well, I won’t keep you,” Kim said hurriedly, before Sips could embarrass her further.

“Okay, bye,” Sips said with a nod. He turned back to his desk and the portal became streaked with purple until the vision of Sips was obscured altogether. Kim found the desire to reach out to the portal rising again, so she immediately turned her back and walked quickly away. She didn’t want to get stuck in some weird dimension where she brazenly posted videos about being a _Flux Buddy_ on the internet. It sounded awful.

Only once she had left the museum altogether and was back in the little antichamber leading to the elevator, did it suddenly hit Kim that she’d done it. She had finally worked out one of the mysteries of Yogtowers! She jumped in the air, letting out a cheerful, “Woohoo!” Sips wasn’t dead and he wasn’t really missing either; he was trapped, but he was happy. Kim had managed to get to the bottom of it. The real mystery that remained, was why. Why had the portal opened? Why did all the other anomalies of Yogtowers exist? Despite her success on this mission, she didn’t feel like she was any closer to solving that conundrum.

She checked her watch as she waited on the lift. It was way past lunch, to the point where she may as well just give up on eating before the end of work. After the shoot and then this detour to Sips’ museum, she’d be lucky to get all of her work finished on time. However, she had just one more stop before she headed back to the editors’ office for the afternoon.

Kim got out of the lift on Level Eight, where Hannah and Turps lived with the rest of the content producers or the ‘lower talent’. She bypassed Martyn’s room and didn’t dare peek in on Rythian again, instead going along to the office newly marked ‘Sjin’. She knocked lightly on the door and heard Sjin reply, “Come in!”

She pushed open the door, to reveal Sjin sitting at his desk in a swivel chair. Laid out in front of him were blueprints of some sort. At first Kim looked over them in interest, wondering if they had anything to do with Yogtowers, but it appeared to be of some kind of fairy tale castle. Losing interest, she looked back at Sjin, who was watching her expectantly.

“Sjin,” she started, not quite sure how to begin, “I have something I need to tell you.”

“Oh? Shoot,” he said, slightly raising an eyebrow.

“You need to go to Sips’ museum,” Kim said, deciding to just lay it all out in front of him. Sjin’s face went rather flat, but she persevered, “I know, you don’t want to go. But I’m not asking you to look over the memorabilia, because you know him better than that. You just need to trust me, okay? Trust me, you _have_ to go up there soon. And don’t touch the purple light.”

“Wha-?” Sjin said, confusion cascading across his face, but Kim just shook her head.

“I don’t want to say anymore,” she explained. “You’d never understand. Just, please promise me you’ll go? Right to the back, to the purple light.”

Poor Sjin looked more bamboozled than ever, but after a moment he relented. “Okay, okay, fine. I promise I’ll go, if it’s so important to you.”

“Good,” Kim smiled in relief, “Good. I’ll, eh, leave you to it.” She walked out, no doubt leaving Sjin wondering what in the world was going on. She was sorry that she had to be so mysterious about it, but she didn’t really know how to explain when it all sounded so mad. It was better that Sjin go for himself and find Sips and talk to him personally. Hopefully it would give Sjin some sort of closure.

She went back down to the editors’ room and collapsed into her desk chair. Her coworkers were looking at her expectantly, seeming slightly worried at her tired state. Teep started signing to Zoey, who piped up, “So, how did it go?”

Kim gave them a smile, which visibly relaxed everyone. Her tense arrival in the room must have suggested that whatever task Turps had assigned her had gone terribly.

“We heard that you got called up to present,” Colin said, looking at her over the top of his glasses. “That might be the quickest anyone’s ever been promoted to talent.”

“I’ve not been promoted!” Kim protested, although the smiles on their faces indicated that her coworkers were only happy for her, not jealous or spiteful. “It went okay, but I’m still an editor and I’m happier like that.”

“I’m happy with whatever you want to do,” Zoey beamed at her like a little ray of sunshine. There was a general murmur of agreement, which made Kim feel a warm glow.

“Thanks, but I’m not talent. Definitely not talent.”

Kim worked on through the afternoon, but her editing went slowly. She found herself tired after her long day and hungry after missing lunch. One by one her coworkers went home once they had finished their work, until Colin left and she was the only one there. By the time she’d finally uploaded her files, it was almost past dinner time too. Her stomach growled fiercely and Kim began plotting which fast food places were nearest her normal route home.

There was a knock at the door, followed by the blond head of hair that announced Duncan was at the door. He surveyed the room, checking it for anybody else before he gave Kim a grin. She found herself smiling broadly back at him. Just the sight of him was enough to make her happy right now, but her joy was doubled when he pulled out two brown paper bags with ‘Five Guys’ stamped on the front and waved them in her direction.

“No way!” she exclaimed, having to restrain herself from grabbing a bag off of him and wolfing the food down right there and then.

“I met Colin when I was leaving. He said you were working late,” Duncan explained, tossing her a bag. “So I figured I’d bring you something.”

“You are an angel,” Kim said as she opened the bag and inhaled the smell of hot burger and chips. “An absolute angel.” She shoved her keyboard out of the way and began arranging her food on the table. Duncan drew up a chair next to her and placed his own meal on the table as well.

“So I heard you were the star of the show today,” Duncan mentioned, while Kim was already halfway through her chips. She had to chew for a few seconds and swallow before she could reply to him.

“Where’d you hear that? It was no big deal.”

“Oh, come on!” Duncan grinned at her, “That’s totally a big deal. I heard you did a really good job!”

Kim rolled her eyes, but she did smile. “It was pretty good. But I’m not getting used to it. They’ll sort this stuff out for Dodger and then she’ll be back where she belongs.”

Duncan shrugged, chewing his own burger for a moment. “If Polaris will let her go. They aren’t playing ball.”

Kim just shook her head. She knew Dodger would be back. Besides, she had a sneaking suspicion that today had only gone so well because of some kind of force, not because of her own acting talents - or lack of. What if they wanted her to fill in again and that force or anomaly or whatever wasn’t there? She’d look like a right idiot. No, Dodger would sort things out and then Kim could just get on with her job. What she had said to Zoey hadn’t been a lie - she really was perfectly happy with her current job.

When they were finished, Kim crumpled up her paper bag and tossed it into the bin with Duncan’s. “You wanna get going?” she asked Duncan, who nodded. Kim quickly gathered up her things and they headed along to the lift, which was empty as they stepped in.

“There was actually something else I wanted to say,” Duncan added, as the elevator descended. Kim looked at him curiously, wondering what else he wanted.

“Just that…” He cleared his throat slightly, turning slightly pink again. Duncan could be so cute when he was embarrassed. Kim suppressed a grin, not wanting to seem like she was laughing at him. “I really liked last night,” Duncan continued. “So we should keep doing that. Going out, I mean. Seeing each other.”

Kim did laugh then, which made Duncan turn a deeper shade of pink and look rather sheepish. “Duncan, it’s not even a question. Of course I want to. We’ll keep it on the down low for a while, but it’s not a question. We can definitely go out again.”

He brightened up at that, as if he’d been afraid of rejection for a minute. Kim couldn’t imagine how he could be in doubt of her feelings towards him, but everyone had their moments of insecurities. “How about this weekend?” she offered, “On Saturday.”

Duncan smiled, “Sure thing.”

They parted ways at the door, Kim going over to her car, while Duncan had cycled to work and was returning home the same way. In her car, Kim turned up the radio and sang songs all the way home, where she promptly collapsed into her bed for the evening. She was so happy, but boy was she exhausted.


	11. Tea, Cakes and Red Matter Clocks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following the success of her stint on YogNews, Kim finds herself really coming into her stride at Yogtowers. Turps has an offer for her, as do Hat Films, albeit of a different nature. Kim just hopes nothing will come between her and the friends she has made.

The next morning when Kim arrived for work, Sjin was in the fifth floor corridor waiting for her. Before she reached the editor’s room, he stepped out in front of her, his face uncertain.

“Are you okay, Sj-” Kim started to say, when he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a warm hug.

“Thank you,” he said softly, his voice thick with emotion, “Thank you.”

When he let her go, he quickly walked away, before she could see his face. Was he crying? It was unclear, but he had sounded on the verge of tears. There was no way to tell what had happened between him and Sips - she was assuming that he had indeed followed the advice she had given him - but he was obviously grateful, so it can’t have gone badly. Maybe it had even given him some form of closure. Kim couldn’t even imagine what it must be like to have the love of your life go missing for years and never know what happened to them. Knowing that he was alive and well, that must mean everything to Sjin. Not wanting to intrude on his privacy any more, she went about her work as usual, but with a small smile on her face the whole day.

The weekend passed by in a blur. Kim and Duncan had their second date on Saturday night, which was just as successful as the first and involved pizza and Jurassic Park. If she hadn’t been convinced already, Kim even more sure that she was on to something good. Oh sure, she was hardly picking out wedding china, but her and Duncan were a good fit for each other, that much was already clear. When they parted ways on Sunday morning, they had plans to meet again the following weekend. Slowly but surely, Kim felt like they were sliding from dating to being actual boyfriend and girlfriend material. She was content to hold back and not rush things in the meantime. There was nothing to be gained by rushing to some end goal or finish line. Enjoying the journey was part of the fun.

Before she knew it, it was Monday again. Fortunately, having a job that she enjoyed meant it was never a drag to have to get out of bed and go to work. The worst part of her day was the seven o’clock rise and her commute to work. That was always worst in winter, when the darkness made her feel even more tired. Today, she saw with a spark of joy, when she rose the sun had already begun to dawn. Spring wasn’t quite here yet, but it seemed like the worst of the winter was behind her. It seemed the same could be said for her work at Yogtowers.

She rose, had her breakfast and morning shower and was on the road in good time. When she reached work, the servers were down for a short maintenance, so Kim continued the good start to her day with a cup of coffee in the staff room with Zoey and a chat, until Colin came along and told them everything was back online, hustling them into actually starting on their work. Kim wondered absent-mindedly what form of apparition had damaged the servers enough to require maintenance. Whatever it was, it can’t have been too big or else Strife and Ridgedog would have called for her. Even still, she wrote them a little note on a scrap of paper: _‘Everything okay down there?’_

She’d never tried to use the Multilevel Filing System to send anything before, only to receive, so she wasn’t quite sure how to do it. She excused herself to the bathroom, then stood leaning against the sink, feeling fruitlessly through the air.

“Come on,” she muttered, holding out her note in the empty air, “There must be something.”

She concentrated on the strange electrical feeling she always got when she’d received notes in the past. Then, suddenly, she felt it, like a tiny tear in the air, a loose thread in the fabric of reality. She pulled on it and the gap widened, enough for her to slot her note into the invisible void. The note disappeared, Kim smoothed over the air with her hand, and then the static electricity was gone. She nodded to herself. Presumably that would find where it needed to go.

The reply came a little later, when she was sitting working at her desk. Kim felt the hairs rise on her right arm, the part nearest to her top desk drawer. When she pried the drawer open, a return note, scribbled on the back of the one she had sent, was neatly folded on top of her folders.

_‘Everything is a-ok! Had some minor trouble with a brachiosaurus. Non-violent, but so damn big it crushed three servers. Fixed now. Will.’_

A dinosaur apparition? Kim had sworn that Strife and Ridge said that these large-scale apparitions were a rarity, but they seemed to have received quite a few already. Either they’d downplayed the problem before to avoid scaring her or they were becoming more frequent. At least they had been able to handle this one by themselves.

It was late on Monday morning that Turps called Kim up to his office. At this point, Kim didn’t know what to expect. She couldn’t think of any reason why she might be in trouble, so she reasoned it must be something to do with YogNews. Unless, of course, Turps had somehow dreamed up something else insane for her to work on.

When Kim knocked on his door, he was talking to someone in his office. If it was to somebody on the phone or just himself, she couldn’t be sure, as his phone was lying on the desk by the time she came in. He gave her one of his signature beaming grins and indicated for her to take a seat. Kim sat down reluctantly, wondering if this meant it was to be an extended visit.

“Hi Kim, hello! Please sit down, I’m very excited to see you here! You must be excited too, yes, after your big shot in the studio? Maybe the makings of a future star yourself, hmm? Yes, make yourself comfortable.”

A future star? Was Turps just being polite and massaging her ego or did he really mean that? Either way, he couldn’t be displeased with her performance if he was saying that. Kim sat up a little bit straighter in her chair.

“I would like to discuss the matter of YogNews,” Turps said. Kim nodded. She’d managed to figure out that much for herself, but she was more interested in exactly what about YogNews Turps wished to talk about.

“You see,” Turps said, shuffling the files and stationery on his desk slightly. “We’ve had a lot of problems securing one of our top talents recently. As you know, Brooke was unable to attend YogNews last week, so you filled in for her. What you may not be aware of, is that this is a longstanding source of contention between ourselves and Polaris HQ. They see Brooke as their frontrunner and the face of their network, so they greatly dislike her being the face of one of our most popular shows. I’m sure you can understand the business sense behind that.”

Again, Kim nodded. Kim hoped by not interjecting, Turps might be encouraged to get to his point a little faster.

“Anyway,” Turps said. “Polaris have finally clamped down on it. Brooke will only run their news show, not ours. Obviously, this creates a permanent position alongside Sam as co-anchor. This is the position that I am offering to you now.”

Kim was momentarily too shocked to respond. She had been sure that the position was a one-time thing and that Dodger would return the next week or the week following that. First, Kim felt sorry for Sam and Dodger and their predicament with their corresponding networks, but that was quickly washed away by the surprise and trepidation of being offered a new job.

“Would I still be an editor?” Kim asked uneasily. “I really like my job.”

Turps looked faintly surprised, but then nodded. “Of course, if that’s what you want. YogNews shooting only takes a few hours, a morning at most. I see no reason why you shouldn’t be capable of filling both roles.”

“And two roles would mean more pay, of course?” Kim suggested, taking a page out of the Nilesy book of negotiating.

“We will certainly talk about compensation for your new role, yes,” Turps agreed, albeit not overly enthusiastically.

“Okay,” Kim agreed, “Let’s talk about it.”

After a long conversation, they agreed on the conditions of her new role. Kim would maintain her position as editor, while becoming the permanent co-host of YogNews. For the extra work, she would receive an eight percent pay rise, open to further negotiation after a probationary period. Turps promised to get a new contract drawn up for her as soon as possible.

“Welcome to the other side of the camera,” Turps said, as they shook hands on the deal. “I told you, didn’t I? Simon is never wrong.”

When she was already so close, Kim took the opportunity to dive into Hannah’s tower once she had left Turps’ office. Her mind was racing as she climbed the stone steps. How had Simon known anyway? How did he even know her? Did he just have good instincts? Or was he in the know about the anomalies? The way that she’d performed in a dreamlike state, Kim had to wonder if anyone could be a success when put in one of the studio cameras. All they had to do was be receptive and the spirit of the studio would do all the work for them - that’s what it had felt like to her. So what did that mean for the performers in the studio? Were they just ‘helped’ in the same way that she had been? What did that mean for the other talent? What did it mean for the Talent? Kim felt like she had so many questions and so few answers.

Kim and Hannah passed a short time talking about their usual nonsense and cooking spaghetti for lunch, which helped distract Kim from her racing thoughts until she was in a calmer mood to examine her questions. She didn’t talk about it to Hannah, thinking it best to keep to herself for now. In fact, Kim felt like she was keeping a lot of secrets at the moment. It was sometimes difficult to not mention Duncan in their conversation either and Kim felt a little bit guilty when Hannah asked her things like ‘What did you do over the weekend?’ and Kim had to edge around the truth. It wasn’t that she was outright lying, but she was definitely omitting key details. There was a definite temptation to just be honest and let her know what was going on, but Kim knew that it wouldn’t be right to Duncan when it was her idea to keep everything on the down low in the first place. Maybe it wouldn’t be too long now before she felt more comfortable talking about it, but she didn’t want to go telling everyone until she felt quite secure in a relationship. That way there was less chance of an embarrassing breakup with rumours flying around the whole office. Kim had never had a workplace romance before, but she’d heard they tended not to end well, so she was talking precautions.

“Congrats on the new gig, by the way,” Hannah said, before Kim had even had a chance to mention the offer from Turps. “Lewis said they want to hire you full time for YogNews. Did Turps get a chance to tell you yet?”

“Yeah! We talked and he’s going to revise my contract,” Kim said cheerfully. So Lewis had mentioned it to Hannah, maybe just as an offhand comment, but that still meant he definitely knew who she was now. Hopefully that meant she was on his good side. She’d still never met Lewis, but he was her boss’ boss, so it could never hurt for him to hear positive things about her.

 

\---

 

Time span on again like everything was moving in fast forward. Kim was in her stride with work, keeping a good routine and work flashed by. She met a new girl, who had joined to work with Fiona in the catering team, and with some satisfaction, Kim realised she was no longer ‘the new girl’, but 100% a fully fledged member of the team.

Before she knew it, the time to film YogNews had rolled around again. The night before, Kim had found herself waking up through the night and it was hard to fall back asleep again. She was worried that she was going to stand up there and nothing was going to come to her. If anything, she was more nervous now than she had been the first time that she’d been asked to present. At least then she didn’t have a reputation to protect; if she’d sucked, then nobody would have expected much more from her. Now she was a rising star of the station, or whatever crap Turps had called her. If she fucked it up now, she’d be embarrassed in front of her bosses and the entire station. Her only consolation was that it wasn’t live. At least if she did screw it all up today, the viewers would never know. Her humiliation wouldn’t be quite that complete.

As she drove to work, she noted the rings under her eyes with dissatisfaction. She didn’t think the panda look was very ‘in’ at the moment. When she arrived at the office, Zoey asked if she was sick and offered to make her a cup of tea, which Kim politely declined. Hopefully the makeup girl was able to perform some kind of makeup miracle, otherwise she was going to look like a zombie on the air. The recording was still a couple of hours away, so she sat down at her desk with the others to get some work done. A little beep alerted her to a message on her screen.

 **Tee:** Are you tired? It’s your big day!

 **Nanosounds:** Don’t start, I’ve been worrying about that all night.

 **Tee:** Come on! Another day, another mystery!

 **Nanosounds:** You’re always pushing the mysteries, aren’t you? Have you solved any yet?

 **Tee:** I’m not very receptive to them. I have other talents.

What did that even mean? Kim looked over at Teep, but his gaze was fixed on his computer screen and she couldn’t catch his eye. After a moment, she began to think that he was deliberately avoiding looking at her. Repressing a loud sigh, she began typing again.

 **Nanosounds:** I’m no good at this either!

 **Tee:** Yes you are. You can do it. Maybe the only one who can do it.

 **Nanosounds:** I don’t know why you’re so convinced.

 **Tee:** You found out about Sips, didn’t you? You have a talent.

Kim’s fingers froze over the keys for a moment. She hadn’t told Teep about Sips. She hadn’t told anyone about it, other than Sjin. Had Sjin mentioned it to him? Kim had expected Sjin to keep the secret to himself, but maybe he was closer to Teep than she had thought. Even so, she was still suspicious.

 **Nanosounds:** How do you know?

 **Tee:** I told you, we all have our talents. I’m a good listener.

Kim had to admit Teep was a good listener. More than that, he was very good at picking up things about people, from their body language or something. She could only assume that it was from being mute, but still able to hear. He couldn’t talk, so he spent a lot of time watching and listening to other people. Kim felt like it must be frustrating for him, never really able to put his point across without a messenger app or a translator like Zoey. Her suspicion faded a little bit, but it still lingered. Teep had thrust the task of investigating Yogtowers on her from the start and she had never been sure why. Now he was saying it was her talent? Was he just bullshitting that to make it seem like he had a good reason? Because how could he have known that only a few days after meeting her? Kim felt like her mind was racing with questions again. That was always the way of this place. You asked one question and a dozen more were eager to spring up and take its place.

 **Nanosounds:** I’m not convinced I’m good at investigating, but I’m not going to give up either.

 **Tee:** Tenacious. That’s why you’re good.

Kim wasn’t sure if there wasn’t just a little bit of smugness to that message, but it was difficult to tell over text.

 **Nanosounds:** Whatever you say Teep, whatever you say.

 **Tee:** Good luck at recording! :)

Kim rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t not smile at that. She did feel a little bit better about the whole thing. Even still, when she headed up to the studio at 11 o’clock, her stomach was clenched. She couldn’t help but have the feeling that something was going to go wrong.

She arrived early, before Strippin was there, or half of the crew. Her makeup girl was there though and she set about disguising the panda eyes to the best of her ability. When she was done, Kim could only faintly detect the darker circles underneath her eyes - if she didn’t know they were there, she may well have not seen them at all.

People slowly started to trickle into the studio as it got closer to the time to record. Tom soon appeared, handing over her script for the week. Kim read it furiously, attempting to memorise it, but it wouldn’t stay in her head. She reminded herself that there was an autocue and that she didn’t need to learn the entire thing on rote, but it was still frustrating when she couldn’t get a sequence of words to lodge in her mind. The nerves were beginning to get to her. Strippin still hadn’t appeared and Tom was looking impatient, wanting to get started. At first waiting was torturous, because she just wanted to get it all over with, but after a while she found herself beginning to relax. She could only remain on edge for so long before she started to feel that it couldn’t really be as bad as she feared. The extra time also allowed her to peruse the script some more, meaning she was a little more successful in her study of the words on the page.

Strippin arrived about fifteen minutes late, looking a little harried as he dashed through the lift doors and into the studio. “Sorry,” he apologised, “I’m here, let’s go.”

Kim wondered if he was going to get an earful for holding up the production, or even just a tut and an eye roll, but everyone was perfectly professional despite the delay. Delays could be common, Kim was to later discover. One day the host might be late, one day the camera might explode, one day the sound guy might forget to rig up someone’s microphone. There was no point getting angry about something as long as it didn’t happen all the time.

Since Sam was now getting done up in the chair, the director suggested that they start with Kim’s solo lines first. Kim felt her stomach clench uncomfortably again, but she reminded herself that she had done this before. She had done this before, she had done this before, she had done this before…

Then the haze descended for her and she found herself once again in that dreamy state where she was vaguely aware of the world around her, but she didn’t really let it bother her. While her outside self did the reading and the jokes and everything necessary for the stage, inner Kim was reliving a Chinese New Year from her youth when she had been living in Shanghai. Fireworks were exploding all around her, but the sound was far away and muffled. It was so beautiful and she was so happy celebrating with all of her family. Then, after a while, the scene shifted to one where she was no longer a child, but an awkward teenager. Were it not for the separation between her mind and her body in this state, she would have blushed bright red, because she recognised the events clearly as her first date with her first boyfriend. They had both been awkward as all hell, but somehow they had managed to get past that eventually. In fact, if she remembered correctly, she was about to experience her first kiss...

She surfaced from the dream to find that her time speaking to the camera was over. From the look of all the faces around her, she seemed to have done a good job, although now her face flushed red as the embarrassment of watching her teenage self attempt to go on a date finally caught up with her. Kim went to sit down in a chair, as fortunately it was now Strippin’s turn to do his solo lines, before they did the set pieces at the news desk. She really hoped that she didn’t look that awkward when she was trying to kiss Duncan, although thankfully she had learned a thing or two in the last fifteen years.

Once that moment of embarrassment had left her though, Kim felt quite elated. Her nerves had been for nothing! Again she had managed to successfully navigate presenting YogNews and again that strange state of mind had easily descended upon her. Part of her felt like she was cheating, that she shouldn’t take entire credit for presenting, but at least she hadn’t made a fool of herself. If she could get this far without the spirit leaving her, then hopefully it would continue to visit until she was at least practiced enough that she no longer needed it.

Sam was almost finished with his piece to camera, when a harsh shout interrupted not only Kim’s thoughts but the entire filming.

“Oi, Richards!”

She could recognise Al Smiffy’s raucous tones anywhere, which immediately made her heart sink. When she looked up, she was even more depressed to find that he was joined by his sidekicks to form the usual trio. Trott was looking ridiculous again in that massive fur coat that he seemed to insist on wearing even though the building was quite warm. Smiffy was in his maroon t-shirt, cords and boots - he must have about five of those t-shirts because he never wore anything else - and Ross was smartly dressed in black trousers, black shoes and an open-collared white shirt with silver cufflinks. Their expressions ranged from ignorant petulance (Trott) to barely disguised anger (Smith) to stony coldness (Ross). Kim found herself wondering if she should just ignore them. After all, they didn’t own her or have any right to her time. They were the ones barging in and interrupting a recording right now. They were the ones in the wrong here! However, when Kim looked around at the rest of the crew, she could feel most of them shrinking away slightly. The Talent were feared by the little people of Yogtowers, the ones who weren’t depended on to rake in the cash. Turps could hire another cameraman or another lighting crew member, but he couldn’t just hire another Chris Trott. She had seen how Turps bend over backwards to accommodate the Talent time and time again. The crew weren’t going to risk their jobs to tell them to fuck off.

Tom, in his higher position as director, took a firmer stance, although he still acted in a manner that couldn’t be taken as rude. “Is there something that you need?” he asked them directly.

“Just Kimothy here,” Smiffy smiled, giving his best charming grin - the kind he usually reserved for headshots - and putting on an innocent look. “Just for a moment or two. I wouldn’t want to hold up the recording.”

Kim wasn’t sure if that was meant to sound genuine or whether it was a threat that he _would_ hold up the recording if he didn’t get his way. Strippin, who was also on a more level playing field with the Hats as a presenter, raised an eyebrow at them and added, “Can you keep it down then, lads?”

Even he hadn’t told them to leave, for all that he said privately about disliking them. It seemed that Kim was expected to talk to them as they had asked. In response to Strippin, Al Smiffy raised his voice several decibels and said, “No problem, mate, just as soon as Kim comes over to talk to us. You’ll come over here, won’t you Kim?”

Mortified, Kim turned back to the crew. Everyone in the studio was looking at her now. She could hardly pretend that she hadn’t seen them. She could refuse to talk to them, but then she might come off as the bad one, as the one causing difficulties and holding up the recording. She’d only just got the job and was still technically on probation. It wouldn’t do to develop a reputation as a diva already. Kim balled her hands into fists. Okay, she would talk to them, but she would do it on the far side of the studio. She sure as hell wasn’t going anywhere else with them, she’d have to be out of her mind. She wasn’t afraid of them, she wasn’t afraid of them, she wasn’t afraid… As nervous as the crew might be about angering the Talent, there were still a dozen people surrounding her. Hat Films might think they were untouchable, but even they had to know they couldn’t get away with anything with this many witnesses. Embarrassing as it was, this was probably the best place they could have tried to speak with her. She just had to be confident, or at least fake as if she was. Kim was a presenter now too, she reminded herself. She didn’t have to feel small.

She got to her feet and marched over to them, looking straight at them rather than attempting to avoid their gaze or look at her feet. Behind her, the crew started to film again with Strippin, as if no interruption had occurred . Determinedly, she set her jaw and crossed her arms as she came to a halt in front of them, leaving a distance of a couple of metres between them. They couldn’t touch her. She just had to keep reminding herself of that.

“Why are you here?” she asked, pointedly not looking at Smiffy. She focused instead on Ross, who seemed like the leader of the group. He’d also been the one to force Smiffy to stop attacking her before, even if he had been callous about it and had those crazy eyes.

“We’re here to _congratulate_ you on your new role, of course,” Ross said, emitting a strange, high-pitched laugh even as his eyes flashed dangerously with anger. “I’ve never seen someone so quickly promoted to on-screen talent.”

“Minor talent,” Trott added quickly, as if worried Kim might mistake herself for ‘The Talent’. Not likely, her head still fitted through doors.

“Yeah, right, how many dicks did you suck to get this job the- _ow!_ ” Al Smiffy clutched at the back of his head where Ross had slapped him, turning to the darker haired man. “Fuck off you _prick!_ ”

“Shut up, you twat,” Ross instructed and, to Kim’s surprise, Smiffy fell into line. Once again, she was left in no doubt as to who wielded the real power out of the trio.

“Well, thank you for the congratulations,” Kim said, as if they had really meant it. “But I’m quite busy.”

“Look, _Randy Richards_ , listen up,” Smiffy said, quietly but forcefully, “We don’t take kindly to people muscling in on our territory. We’re the Talent here, you’re nobody. We call the shots. Don’t make us take steps.”

“You’ve never even hosted YogNews!” Kim protested. Suddenly, the anger that had been building in her every time she’d had to put up with the Talent’s bullshit bubbled over enough to overcome her fear. How dare they come in as if they owned the place. She wasn’t just an editor anymore, she was a presenter just like them, and even if she hadn’t been they had no right to speak to her like that. “If you think I’m giving up my gig for you, you’re mad. I bet you aren’t even that funny when you don’t have this studio influencing you. And after what you did to me, you’re lucky to still even have a job, so you can fuck _off!_ ”

Al Smiffy started to raise his fist, but Ross had anticipated it and caught him by the wrist before his arm had risen more than a few inches.

“No, let me fuck her up,” Smiffy grunted through his gritted teeth, “Little _bitch_. We’ll take you out Richards if we have to, it wouldn’t be the first time!”

“Trott, go upstairs with Smith and do whatever he wants,” Ross snapped, his temper splintering like ice, “Now!”

Kim watched with morbid curiosity as Smiffy threw his arm around Trott’s neck and practically dragged him off to the back stairs. What plans he had in mind she didn’t know and she didn’t want to know. Now she was faced with only Ross and somehow that made her feel more nervous than when he was with his cronies. Smiffy was always on the verge of violence, but that anger made him sloppy and prone to accidents. Ross didn’t seem to slip up so easily.

“Who did you take out before?” she questioned, managing to control the quiver in her voice.

“Smith talks hastily,” Ross dismissed, seemingly genuinely. “He dislikes a threat to his position, as do I. But you just stick to YogNews and you won’t have to worry about anything. I’m sure you remember what I told you after the incident with Smith. You just keep that in mind and we’ll have no trouble. Got it?” Without waiting for a reply, he turned to follow the tracks of the rest of Hat Films. _Who did they take out before?_

With Hat Films gone, the crew were able to complete Sam’s lines once Kim had returned to her seat. No sooner had they begun filming than was she swept away again. Once that strange influence of the studio had captured her, the rest of the filming just flew past. She only came around to find herself signing off, sitting in her chair as Tom called it a wrap and the crew began to pack things away. Kim felt a little dazed, suddenly coming to realise that time had passed and the show had been filmed in the meantime. Another success! But returning back from her memories to reality reminded her of Ross’ warning and left her uneasy.

She slipped out of the studio alone and made her way back down to her own level in the elevator. So, clearly Hat Films were not happy about her sort-of promotion. Kim hoped that none of her friends would feel the same way. Of course, none of them would be so psychotic about the whole thing, but she couldn’t be completely sure that there might not be a little resentment now that she wasn’t only an editor anymore. Kim knew they were good people, and they still were friends with Sjin and Rythian who were content creators, but Sjin and Rythian had both worked for a long time to get to where they were. Like Hat Films had said, they hadn’t heard of anyone being bumped up to the studio so quickly. It didn’t entirely seem that she had paid her dues - although, maybe she had when you took all of the non-work-related tasks into account. She just hoped that they wouldn’t mind.

When she returned down to her room on the fifth floor, Kim found the editors’ room vacant. Supposing that they must have gone to lunch, she changed direction and headed for the staff room instead. The door was closed, which was unusual, as it was generally held open with a doorstop. Cautiously, Kim pushed open the door and was immediately barraged with a dozen ‘pops’ as party streamers burst in her face and then the assembled people yelled “Surprise!”

It took Kim several seconds of shock to realise that she wasn’t actually under attack. The room was filled with people, some close friends, some who maybe just wanted to join in a party and get a slice of cake. All the editors were there, as were Nilesy and Zylus, Rythian, Fiona, Sjin, Hannah, Martyn, Minty and Adam from the admin level and all of the artists. Duncan was sitting in the back, with a party hat perched on his head at a jaunty angle and an amused smile on his lips. A homemade banner on the back wall read ‘Congratulations!’ There was even a thickly frosted chocolate cake on the table, along with assorted other snacks and drinks.

“Oh my god, you guys!” Kim exclaimed when she’d finally recovered from the shock. “I can’t believe this!” She felt tears prick the corners of her eyes. It was so thoughtful of them to have done all of this for her. She blinked the tears away before they came, not wanting to wuss out on the situation. Instead she allowed them to cheer and pass her drinks and make her cut the cake and generally take part in the party they had planned for her. Duncan poured her a drink, giving her a nod and a conspiratorial wink that made her grin.

“You guys are just the best,” she told them, when they were all lounging around the sofas, having eaten their fill of snacks and cake. “I still can’t believe you did all of this just for me.”

“We all have our reasons,” Hannah said with a bright smile.

“Yeah, you helped me out with my job,” offered Nilesy.

"And you edit all of my videos," Martyn said, then added, "And do a great job with them too."

“Well, we wouldn’t even be together without you, I don’t think,” Zoey said, indicating herself and Fiona, who she was sitting next to. “Fiona told me that you told her to go for it,” Zoey added, making Fiona blush slightly.

“And you helped me,” Sjin added, a little more secretively.

“We all have our reasons,” Duncan repeated, leaving out his own for her benefit. Teep added a mute, but certain, nod. Kim felt the urge to well up again. She didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t realised that she’d managed to affect so many people during the few short months that she had been working in Yogtowers. It went without saying that they had had just as great an effect on her. Without realising it, these people had slowly become her best friends.

Before she had a chance to formulate a reply, Rythian added, “Well, you know what you’ve been doing for me. But you don’t need to do it anymore.” He got to his feet with deliberate slowness and then held out his hand to Ravs, who had been sitting next to him. “Do you want to go?” he asked Ravs.

Ravs’ ears went very red, but he got to his feet and said, “Yes, of course, Rythian.” It almost sounded rehearsed, but then it might have been if Ravs had been nervous about this. He took Rythian’s hand and they walked from the room together, leaving a trail of silence in their wake.

“Wait, what just happened?” Zoey asked after several seconds, blinking like a small woodland creature caught in headlights.

‘You don’t need to do it anymore’, Rythian had said. Presumably, that meant he was no longer holding Kim to secrecy. Certainly his actions were not ones of someone who was still attempting to be discreet.

“Oh right, they are like, dating or something?” Kim said, unable to contain a slight giggle at the chaos that then broke out.

“I told you, I said something was going on!” Hannah was assuring Duncan, who rolled his eyes. Sjin seemed in a state of minor shock, while Nilesy was having over money to Teep with a grimace that seemed to be the end result of some kind of bet. Teep was looking very smug about the whole thing.

“Good for them,” Martyn nodded, while Zoey smiled and said, “It’s romantic!”

“Ravs is not a romantic figure,” Colin asserted, with a stubborn face.

Despite the slightly mixed reactions, Kim felt like she had been right to assure Rythian. People might be surprised, but nobody really cared or thought it was wrong or disgusting. After people had got over the initial shock, if there even was any, the general consensus was that it was good for them. Just like that, it became both public knowledge and nobody else’s business. Kim felt proud of both of them for standing up for their feelings.

The little party wound down after that, with various people slipping off back to their rooms. Those that knew Kim less well were the first to go, followed by others who wanted to finish off work before they left or wanted to leave early for dinner. Eventually the only people left were Kim, Duncan, Hannah and Sjin, sitting on the sofa and talking. Kim listened more than she spoke. It was interesting to hear them interact, even though they were just joking about a business trip Sjin had taken to Canada on behalf of the role he held overseeing what remained of Sips Co. Hannah, Duncan and Sjin had been half of the original team that had helped create the Yogscast station, along with Sips and the co-founders Lewis and Simon, but Sjin and Sips had also had a side company of their own. They had known each other for a very, very long time.

“Well, a group in Canada has been buying up all of the Sips Co merchandise they can get their hands on,” Sjin was saying. “Of course, that’s means they are getting a lot of fakes too. And those can actually be really dangerous. Did you know that Hat Films even ended up with an alarm clock made with red matter once!”

“No way!” said Duncan incredulously. “That’s so dangerous.”

“W-Wait, what was that?” Kim asked. She had been slightly zoning out, but she felt like she had just missed something important.

“There’s a lot of fakes of Sips Co merchandise,” Sjin repeated.

“No,” Kim shook her head, “After that.”

“Hat Films found a red matter alarm clock?”

“A red matter alarm clock,” Kim repeated, her expression flat as everything clicked into place. “That you gave to Sips. Of course you would give it to Sips, he loved the fake merchandise because he found it hilarious and he collected it. So when a new fake turned up that you’d never seen before, of course you gave it to him. Because it was his birthday.”

“Yes,” Sjin said uncertainly, in deep surprise, “How do you know about that?”

“They told me about it,” Kim said, distantly. And they had as well. _Who had they taken out before?_ Now that Sjin had confirmed it, everything made sense. One of the museum exhibits had mentioned that Sips collected the merchandise of his off-shoot production company, Sips Co, whether the merchandise was real or one of the many fakes. Hat Films claimed they had taken someone out before, while warning Kim about getting too big as a presenter. Sips had been the best. Sips had disappeared. He had vanished because of a gift that Hat Films had made sure worked its way into Sjin’s hands, knowing that he would pass it on. Sips had disappeared and Hat Films had been free to take over the station. They were _the Talent_. But only because they had already got rid of the master.

“Kim? Kim?”

Kim snapped back to the present to see Hannah waving a hand in front of her face. “Kim, we’re going home now.”

“Right, sorry,” Kim apologised, “I’m right with you.”

She picked up her things and left with the others, but her mind was racing the whole time. Hat Films were really responsible for Sips being transported to another dimension. How could they do that? Where was the justice? Sips was alive and well, but in a way it was like they had killed him. He could never come back to this world and walk and talk and joke and spread joy like he used to. What about all his friends who missed him? What about Sjin? If she was right, it was all Hat Films’ fault. She had to find a way to make them pay for it. On top of everything else they had already done, this was too far. This was so far over the line that they couldn’t even see the line. But how? How?


	12. Finding The Key

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After discovering what Hat Films are responsible for, Kim knows that it is time to take action. However, she before she can go after Hat Films, she needs to find a way to get to them, which involves finding one key in a thirteen-storey office block, finding allies for her cause, and meeting Lewis Brindley, co-owner of the company.

For several days, Kim tussled with the problem of what to do about Hat Films. Sips was gone, he wasn’t in any more danger, so there was no urgency to rescue him. However, the warning that Hat Films had given her did spur her on to think of a solution quickly. Who knew how long it might be until they did the same thing to her or to somebody else who went against them? For the most part they appeared to have holed up in their rooms on the tenth floor, so Kim saw no sign of them and recordings were postponed, supposedly over the ‘management dispute’ that had been running on for some time. Kim wasn’t sure what they were really plotting up there. It might have something to do with her, but it could easily be a completely separate nefarious scheme. She wouldn’t be surprised if Hat Films were up to their eyes in all kinds of corruption.

Duncan invited her over to his flat again after work on Wednesday. He’d cooked them a dinner of steak and fresh vegetables, which was actually extremely tasty, but Kim found her mind drifting off back to her problems. When Duncan started talking about an animation project that he’d been working on, Kim found her mind drifting off again. Hat Films, Sips, studio, anomalies, Hat Films, Sips, studio, anomalies….

“Kim.”

Kim snapped out of her thoughts suddenly, embarrassed to have been caught out. She looked down at her food and said, “I’m sorry.” When she looked up at Duncan, he didn’t look annoyed or angry though, he looked quite concerned.

“Is everything okay?” he asked her seriously. “You’ve been kind of… distracted recently. You keep spacing out. You haven’t had any trouble, have you?”

For a moment, Kim just wanted to tell him everything. Duncan knew the anomalies, even if he didn’t like to talk about them. She could just spill out all the worries, about the Talent and their manipulation, the way Al Smiffy had treated her in the past, that she knew how and why Sips had disappeared and who was responsible. The relief in telling would be a great weight off of her shoulders. But something stopped her. Hat Films had threatened her and she wasn’t sure how Duncan would react to that. Would he get angry? Would he just look out for her or would he take it up with Hat Films themselves? What if they turned their focus to him instead? Kim was already involved, she was already a target, but Duncan wasn’t. If something happened to him just because of her, she couldn’t stand it. They hadn’t been dating long, but they had been friends for months before that and Kim cared about him very much.

“I’m sorry, it’s nothing,” Kim lied. “I’ve just been feeling homesick recently. It’s almost Chinese New Year.”

“Oh, I see,” Duncan nodded, seeming to relax a bit. “I guess it must be really hard living away from your family.”

“Yeah, but it’s not just that. I miss the culture and the food… Oh man, let me tell you about real Malaysian food…”

The substitute rant about missing home did make Kim feel a little bit better. Usually when she was in Britain at this time of year, she would be heavily missing her family and her family’s culture, especially if she hadn’t seen them in a while, but this year she was far too caught up in Yogtowers. She hadn’t even remembered that Chinese New Year was coming until a few days before. It did put Duncan off the trail though, and hopefully would make him more understanding if she was a little distant recently. Kim just couldn’t bear to see him get hurt.

She stayed over at Duncan’s that night and came with him to work the next morning. He stopped around the corner from Yogtowers to allow her to walk ahead of him and avoid suspicion, but Kim just smiled at him and pulled his arm.

“Come on,” she grinned. “Maybe we’re not making a statement like Rythian, but we don’t have to keep hiding the fact that we enjoy each other’s company.”

Duncan let out a short chuckle and added, “He’s a bit of a drama queen, isn’t he?”

Kim wasn’t sure what the opposite of a drama queen was, but that was probably what Duncan was. He was so understated and relaxed about everything. But it was nice to just walk into work together, just as a normal couple. And, after all, they weren’t holding hands or smooching in the corridors, so what was there to cause suspicion anyway?

They separated at the fifth floor, when Kim went along to the editors’ office while Duncan continued up to the artists’ room. It was quite early in the morning, so she was the first one in. She put her bag down at her desk and was just leaving to go and get a fresh cup of coffee from the staff room when a short figure in a large coat hurried past the office door and down the corridor. Kim dropped everything and leapt after the retreating form of Chris Trott. Alone. Vulnerable. Trott was rarely on his own and he was definitely the least frightening member of Hat Films. He was still about a head taller than Kim, but she was ready for battle. She grabbed his arm and spun him around with such force that he crashed backwards into the wall of the corridor. He wasn’t expecting her and his surprise gave her a moment of opportunity. She grabbed the stupid sunglasses that he _insisted_ on wearing indoors off his face and snapped the legs off of them one after the other. Trott looked at her in shock, his lower lip trembling.

“Right, listen here,” Kim told him sternly. “What are you doing down here? You’ve got no reason to be down here. Are you snooping? Spying? Huh?”

“You can’t do anything, when I tell Ross and Smith-”

“Where are they now?” Kim growled. “You can tell them anything you like, it isn’t going to help you much now, sunshine.” She felt a spark of enjoyment as Trott seemed to process this information and the lip quiver became slightly more pronounced. Using the anger, all the little frustrations, she tried to channel all her favourite badass female characters into making herself sound like she was actually someone to be scared of.

“Well I’m still talent,” Trott said defiantly, despite the faint squeak as his voice moved up and back down a register. “ _The Talent._ You can’t touch me. I don’t care who you’ve got on your side. We’re still more important.” The way he said it made Kim think. Sure, the talent were powerful, but what about the combined power of everyone else? Hannah and Duncan for sure, and what about all the other people who’d turned up to her celebration party? Did Hat Films fear that kind of move against them? Or, more importantly, did Trott fear Ross finding out that he’d caused such an event to happen enough to make him talk? Kim decided to risk it. She gave him another shove back into the wall and raised her voice.

“Do you want me to go straight upstairs with the evidence I’ve got? Because I can and it won’t just be me. I know what you did to Sips. I know. So you better start talking. Why are you down here?”

“I- I was waiting for you to come in,” Trott said pathetically, casting his eyes downwards. “Ross wants to know whenever you’re in the building. He ordered me to come down here.”

“Where is Ross? Where’s Smiffy?” Kim questioned. “Upstairs?”

This time Trott said nothing, but then he glanced meaningfully at Kim, then looked back at the floor. _Underneath_ them? “Are you saying they’re downstairs?” Trott didn’t reply again, but started shifting nervously from leg to leg. Kim felt like a new strategy needed to be deployed. She smoothed out the collar of Trott’s ridiculous jacket, and put his broken sunglasses into the front pocket of his shirt.

“I’m sorry about the glasses, Chr- Trott,” Kim said in as kindly a tone as she could muster. She almost called him ‘Chris’, but at the last moment it just seemed too weird to force out her mouth. “Look, I know Ross and Alex treat you very badly. I won’t do that anymore. It’s not kind of me.”

Trott looked at her with confusion, then with suspicion. “You’re being weird,” he commented, although he definitely looked slightly more relaxed. Kim tried to force the image of him yelling petulantly at pretty young assistants from her head and talk to him in the manner a mother or a caring older sister might.

“But they do treat you horribly, don’t they Trott? Smith does things to you. They both do. You don’t need to listen to them or stick up for them.”

“I’m not a child,” Trott said, sticking his lower lip out like a toddler.

“I know!” Kim said, in a more adult tone, but still trying to keep her voice soft. “I know. So be brave like a man. I know what they did to Sips and I won’t let them do that to you. I know they’ve been trying to get more money out of Turps for weeks now. Imagine how much money they could get if they took half your salary each…”

Kim wasn’t a particularly good liar and she was fairly sure that everything she was saying was bullshit, but they seemed to have an affect on Trott nonetheless. The seconds dragged out in silence, but Kim didn’t interject. Trott could have all the thinking time he needed. She was concerned in case one or the other of the trio turned up, but they couldn’t approach without the elevator doors giving her advanced warning. Trott kept glancing at his feet as if he was expecting to see the ghost of Ross or Smith rising out of the floor to get him.

“So they’re downstairs, Trott, are they?” Kim asked. “What are they doing downstairs?” She wondered what downstairs could mean. There was the admin level, where they could easily be sneaking into personnel files or maybe even into the accounting for the business. There was the business centre, which Kim had never visited, but she was fairly sure that just contained a few offices and a couple of larger conference rooms, along with additional storage. The server level was definitely somewhere that they could cause trouble, but they had to be let in there by either Strife or Ridgedog if they didn’t have the code, and both of the techies were more than capable of seeing off the Talent if they could deal with giant, violent apparitions. That only left the ground floor, but that was simply the entrance hall.

“Are they on the fourth floor, Trott?” Kim asked again, starting to get frustrated. “Are they in the admin station?” Trott shook his head, which was at least some kind of answer. “The business centre?” Kim questioned, to another shake of the head. “The server level!” she said, expecting this to be the answer, but once again Trott disagreed. “Well then, they must be on the ground floor.”

Trott shook his head again, looking deeply unhappy. Kim’s temper snapped again and her voice rose several octaves as she shouted at him, “Well where are they then, Trott? Where are they?”

Trott muttered something incoherent. Kim stopped shaking him, and then he said again.

“....Basement.”

Kim blinked at him, letting go of his arm in shock. “There’s a basement?”

“There’s a basement. You get to it on the Second Floor.”

The second floor? That was the server level? Kim couldn’t think of any doors in the server lev-

No, she could. The mysterious door right at the back of the room, the old-fashioned one that felt like it led to a dark dungeon. The one that Strife and Ridgedog had always said was locked.

“What are they doing in the basement?” Kim asked him, trying to keep the excitement of discovery out of her voice. “Do they have a key? How to they get past the server techs?” She cursed herself for asking too many questions at once, knowing the more she asked, the less likely Trott was to answer. Fortunately, pulling answers from him was less tricky now that he had admitted to the basement.

“It’s our base. We can do anything there. Only we can get in and only we can get out, nobody knows how. So even if you know it’s there, there’s nothing you can do about it!” Trott grew more prideful again, as if this assertion had reminded him that he was holding all the cards. “I’ve played your games long enough. You might be talent now, but you’re nothing compared to me.” With that, he shoved her out of the way with his shoulder and left. Kim didn’t make an attempt to stop him. A secret lair in the basement… if she could find that, she’d probably find enough evidence to get Hat Films fired a million times over… not just fired, but probably locked up in jail to boot. She had to move, before Trott could tell his coworkers and they could regroup. Kim guessed that Trott wouldn’t be in a hurry to tell them, for the fear of getting into trouble, but she didn’t doubt that they’d pry it out of him soon enough.

But where to start? If she was going to try and take on Hat Films, the first thing she needed was an ally. She had to find somebody she could trust and, maybe more importantly, somebody who would trust her enough to believe her story. Duncan was out straight away. Kim didn’t want to see him hurt and she knew going after Hat Films was a dangerous job. Hannah? She was usually the voice of reason, possibly too reasonable. Kim worried that Hannah would simply want to take it to Lewis, like she had with the last incident with Smith, and that led straight back to it being Kim’s word against the power of the Talent. No, not Hannah. Sjin? He certainly had the motive to be angry with Hat Films if they were really to blame for Sips disappearing, but maybe he was too sensible like Hannah. Maybe, he could help…

Kim’s mind was made up for her when the lift doors dinged open and Teep emerged from the lift. In a surge of relief, she realised that he was exactly who she wanted to see. He was the one who had been honest with her about the anomalies from the start. He’d trusted her with that information, so she knew she could trust him with this. Even if he might not be prepared to go storming into Hat Film’s base with her, his inside knowledge on their coworkers in the office might at least direct her to someone who would.

Teep, seeing her standing alone in the corridor looking shell shocked, stopped in front of her, swinging his backpack from his shoulder. He couldn’t say anything, but he shrugged at her, as if to say, ‘What gives?’ Kim grabbed him by the arm and pulled him along and into the editor’s office, shutting the door behind them.

“I need to talk, Teep.” Kim said, “And I need you to hear me. Do you get me?” Teep nodded, so Kim continued. “The Talent have a secret base underneath the building. This entire tower has a basement that I didn’t know about. I don’t think anybody knows about it. Did you?” Again, Teep shook his head. His expression grew more intense, and Kim could tell that he was concentrating on what she was saying.

“I know Hat Films got rid of Sips,” Kim explained, waving off Teep’s shocked expression at the news. “Hat Films planted an item in Sjin’s hands that they knew he would give to Sips. Some kind of ‘red matter’ or something, I don’t know, I’m no scientist. Whatever it was, you could call it a dimension bomb, I guess. It blasted open another dimension and sucked Sips inside so he could never return. They did it, and I need to get proof, or else they’re probably going to do the same thing to me.” Or _worse_ … she added gloomily inside her own head. Ross had threatened her with ‘giving her to Smith’. At least Sips was relatively safe and happy in his other dimension. “Anyway,” Kim added. “I need to find a way to break through a magically sealed door, get into the basement, infiltrate their base, steal all the evidence I need to prove that they did it, and get back without them finding me.”

Teep held out his hands passively, as if he was trying to get her to calm down. Kim stook a breath, but it didn’t help her relax. It was a tall order any way you looked at it. Then Teep reached out and touched two fingers to either side of Kim’s forehead. “Teep?” she questioned, but then she gasped out loud as she heard a voice echoing inside her own head.

_‘Do not worry. I will help you.’_

Kim jerked back instinctively in shock. “You can speak?” Teep shook his head with a frown, and reached out towards her again. “You need to be touching me?”

Teep pressed the pads of his fingers to her temples again, and simply said, _‘Yes.’_

It took Kim a few moments to process this, but then she laughed. “Well why didn’t you tell me before? I’ve seen enough weird shit around here by this point.”

Teep looked slightly sheepish. _‘I didn’t want to scare you.’_

Kim smiled, but she did understand his reasoning. Most other people would probably think they were going insane right now. Hell, if Teep had tried to do this within a few weeks of her arrival, she’d probably have run off screaming. Now this was just another thing on the giant mound of crazy that was her life.

“So, uh, are you another anomaly then?” Kim asked him. It was a bit awkward having to stand here while Teep touched her head, but the longer they talked, the more she was becoming used to it.

 _‘No. Well, not quite. I never had this power until I started here.’_ Teep paused, probably gathering his thoughts, then continued. _‘Have you noticed, that each floor seems to have its own anomalies? Sometimes one, sometimes more. I know this from what you have told me and from what I have seen. The server level has strange apparitions. The business centre alters people’s perceptions and judgement - there’s a reason they have the business meetings with investors on that floor,’_ Teep added cynically. _‘The admin level is the source of the Multilevel Filing System. The sixth floor inspires visions and hallucinations, which is why they staff the writers and artists there. The seventh floor is an inspired area, a less pervasive effect similar to that of the main studio. Level Eight has the old clock tower where Hannah lives and the ghostly stage, which effects follow Turps. This is where the dimensional rifts start to appear. The ninth floor is the main studio, where inspiration will literally possess those who are most easily influenced. Level Ten, where Hat Films live, you described to me as having strange rooms that could not exist solely in our dimension. Level Eleven, lies the portal rift to where Sips is trapped in another reality. What lies on higher floors, that I cannot say.’_

He had an oddly lilting and slightly old-fashioned way of speaking, not to mention that Kim still had to get used to words just appearing in her head without the medium of her ears in between, but she understood his point well enough. She nodded eagerly, urging him to continue.

_‘Our floor has a power of its own. For a long time, I thought it was a dead zone in the influence of the anomalies. But the Level Five affects people. People change here. I have learned to talk, in a way, but that is not all. To speak like this, I have to come into contact with people’s minds. By coming into contact with their minds, I understand them wholly. I will explain more. You have also been changed by this anomaly of the fifth floor. You are more than the person who first entered Yogtowers months ago. You have gained powers. You fight on the server level and you have been possessed in the studio. This is because you have become sensitive to the anomalies. You are drawn to them and they seem to be drawing you to them too. This is why people wish to give you answers, to tell you things that they themselves would rather keep secret. They are compelled to tell and you are compelled to search. I understand people’s minds, but I cannot read their minds. That is why I could not investigate. You can investigate. This I knew.’_

The idea of her having powers was almost unbelievable, yet she believed Teep instantly. How else could she explain everything that had happened to her? The sword, the athletic ability, the intense desire to figure out the mysteries and know more… And although getting answers had been so frustrating, she always seemed to have received just the piece of information she needed. Sips had just happened to mention the alarm clock, Sjin had coincidentally spoken about his trip to find fakes and mentioned that Hat Films had found one… Perhaps the anomalies themselves wanted Hat Films gone? But that was crazy, they were rifts or mistakes of science, not magic. They weren’t sentient beings with desires for change.

“So we’ve all been changed?” she asked Teep. “All of us?”

_‘All of us who work here, or who have worked here, on this floor,’ Teep said. ‘You, me, Colin, Zoey, Rythian, Sjin and Nilesy. I expect Zylus will change too, in time.’_

“Ravs?” Kim suggested, and was surprised to find a sly smile appear on Teep’s face. When he spoke again, she could ‘hear’ the amusement in his voice.

_‘Ravs’ singular talent appears to be that he is wholly unremarkable. He has not been changed.’_

For some reason, Kim found that quite funny and let out a shallow giggle. “So how have they changed?”

Teep shook his head, _‘It is not important and it is not my story to tell. Two of them, yes, you will find out, because you must know. We will go and find them. Together, we will take the fight to Hat Film’s lair. There must be justice.’_

“Wait, who?” Kim asked, but Teep had dropped his hands and gestured her to follow him. He already had his phone in his hands as he walked along the corridor, texting with furious speed. Kim protested at him the entire way up in the elevator, but Teep seemed content to ignore her, focusing on sending messages. He led her out on Level Eight, which meant somebody in the lower talent, or Turps or Hannah. Teep set off confidently down the corridor though, heading straight in the direction of Rythian’s door.

“Okay, we’re seeing Rythian, can you explain what’s going on yet?” Kim asked, but Teep just gave her an amused smile. He pushed open Rythian’s door without knocking, but Rythian was clearly expecting them. Presumably, one of the texts that Teep had sent had been warning that they were on their way.

“You’re here,” Rythian said. “What’s going on? What’s urgent?”

To Kim’s surprise, Teep reached out a hand to the side of Rythian’s head and several seconds passed. Clearly Rythian was already aware of Teep’s ability, which did make sense seeing as they were old friends.

“I see,” Rythian said after what seemed like a long time, but was probably only half a minute. “Kim, this is troubling news. Zoey is on her way.”

So Rythian and Zoey, those were the two people that Teep thought she had to talk to. Did he think that they could help? They were old friends of his and Kim had grown quite attached to both of them, in their own ways. She wasn’t sure how good they could be against Hat Films though, Zoey in particular. She just seemed too nice for all of this.

Neither Teep nor Rythian seemed happy to talk until Zoey had arrived, so they awkwardly hung around for several minutes until she turned up, slightly out of breath. “I ran all the way here!” she said, still sounding quite chipper about the whole thing. “What’s the emergency?”

“Teep said that he needs us,” Rythian explained, saving another half-minute of silent conversation on Teep’s part. “He says Kim has discovered something important. He said our powers are needed.”

Zoey’s eyes jumped to look at Kim and then flashed back to Rythian. She put on a smile and a jokey voice and said, “What powers? What are you talking about?” Then she looked back again at Kim and her face fell. “Oooh… okay…”

“Hat Films made Sips disappear,” Kim said severely, trying to cut through the secrecy to the point of the matter. “I don’t know what powers you have, I don’t know what you can do to help, but they have a secret base down in the basement and if I don’t go in there and find proof of what they’ve done, there will never be justice.”

Zoey’s mouth formed a perfect ‘o’ as her jaw dropped in shock. She sounded genuinely upset when she asked, “But why would they do that?” Teep flashed her a look and she appeared to stiffen her resolve. “We won’t let them get away with that!”

“We will show you our powers,” Rythian said. “We can help you.”

To Kim’s surprise, Teep flicked off the lights, so that the only dim light was that which penetrated Rythian’s blackout blinds on his window. She watched as Teep, Rythian and Zoey all raised their left hands in the gloom, with their index finger outstretched, and touched their fingertips together. Kim squinted at them for a moment, wondering why nothing was happening. For a few seconds, it seemed like they were all just crazy, talking about ‘powers’ and expecting something supernatural to happen. But then she _saw_. Superimposed over them were strange wisps, larger than life and gently glowing in the darkness, like the outlines of fading neon lights that were only half real. Behind Teep, the faint, half-transparent of a giantic, terrifying dinosaur. Green scaled and massive, like a T-Rex but with the eyes of some ancient malevolent dragon, a strip of red cloth wound around its head and it carried weapons, even though its teeth and claws should be more than a match for any opponent. Behind Zoey, a figure that was almost herself, but with key differences. This version of Zoey was leaner, tougher and more muscular, with long red hair and two jagged scars across her right cheek. In one hand she gently held a red spotted mushroom, which seemed to stand in her cupped hand without any other support. But the most obvious change was her right arm which, as Kim watched, slid back in millions of tiny panels to reveal itself as not a human arm at all, but a complex series of robotic panels. The other version of Zoey raised her robotic wrist and fired a series of bright green lasers which dissipated into unreality. Finally, behind Rythian loomed the dark and sinister figure of a mage. Wand in hand, sending sparks from floor to ceiling, there was no doubt of the power that emanated from those bright purple eyes with the slitted cat-like pupils. But he wore no robe or cape, just the light black clothing of a ninja, save for the long purple scarf that was wound around his mouth and shoulders, a more elaborate version of the one that he wore in real life. Kim sat back stunned. The other selves were drawn into the normal versions of Teep, Zoey and Rythian until they became real, replacing her friends who had stood there moments before. They were smaller than the illusions of them had been, with Teep not much larger than he had been in real life while Zoey was the same height, but more muscular, and Rythian was actually slightly shorter and far more lithe and agile-looking.

Kim couldn’t even speak. She wanted to ask if they were the same people, but she knew that they were and they weren’t at the same time. Fortunately Rythian spoke to save her struggling for words.

“Our time here has changed us,” Rythian said. “Split us in two. I don’t pretend to understand why, but this is how it is. It is perhaps two selves: how we are and how we want to be. But I can’t say for sure.”

“Really it’s just a bunch of weird magicky sciency stuff,” Zoey added helpfully.

Teep rested his scaly hand on her head, with surprising grace for his larger size, although Kim still had to suppress a shudder being so close to those sharp claws.

_‘As you can see, we are not weak. We can support you. We will help you.’_

“You’ll help me?” Kim asked, directing this more at Zoey and Rythian.

“Teep said Hat Films want to hurt you,” Zoey said simply. “I won’t let them do that.”

“Plus, if they are really responsible for Sips…” Rythian punched one first into his opposite palm to illustrate his point.

“What do we need to do?” asked Zoey.

Ah, right, the plan. Something that Kim didn’t have yet. “Well, first we need to find a way into their hideout,” Kim pointed out. “And I don’t know how to get in yet. The only way is locked. The door is in on the server level.”

Rythian gave a casual shrug. “There’s nothing that I can’t break open,” he said confidently, but Teep shook his head rapidly.

“Not this one,” Kim disagreed. “You can try, but I don’t think you’ll have much luck. It’s not sealed with just a lock. I’m pretty sure it’s another anomaly.”

Rythian settled deep into thought. Zoey piped up, “Well then there’s a key, isn’t there? There can’t be a door without a key. It has to be here somewhere.”

“Somewhere in a thirteen-floor building,” Rythian added gloomily.

“Assuming that Hat Films don’t have the only key and have locked it in there with them,” Kim added even more gloomily.

“Hey!” Zoey said energetically, “You don’t solve problems by being grumpy about them! If there’s a key then we’ll find it and if we don’t, then we’ll just have to find another way in. Okay!?”

Kim smiled, infected with Zoey’s optimism. “Okay,” she agreed. Rythian and Teep both gave an affirmative nod.

“So we’ll search,” Zoey said. “Except, not now, because it’s kind of time for work and Colin will get annoyed if all of his staff are missing.”

“Particularly if it means being left alone with Ravs,” Kim added with a chuckle. “I swear he’s scared of him.”

Zoey, Teep and Rythian held out their hands again. This time their normal real-world selves were imposed over them in the faded neon lights and then they were back. The moment he was back in his human body, Teeps began signing to Zoey, who translated to Rythian and Kim, since Teep couldn’t touch them all at once to ‘speak’ to them.

“We need to split up and try and search for the key,” Zoey said, watching Teep’s hands. “Take a few floors each and search throughout the day or at lunch. What did the door look like, Kim? It might help us identify the key.” The three of them looked at Kim expectantly. Kim cast her mind back, trying to remember exactly what the door had looked like. She easily remembered how the door had made her feel, but picturing it was a little more difficult.

“It was old, ancient looking,” Kim said. “Like the one to Hannah’s tower, but different. It had carvings and black metal fittings. Yes, kind of black bumpy metal, not smooth. The wood was quite dark, but not black like ebony. Maybe some kind of mahogany door.”

Teep nodded and started gesturing again. Zoey translated once more.

“The key will probably be like the metal, black and rough. It will unlikely- it probably won’t be new, since the door is old.”

Kim nodded, it made sense to her. “Okay, so we’ll search. Teep, go look in the Server Level itself, I’ll look on floors three and four, Kim take floors five and six, Rythian take seven and eight.”

“I’ll look at the main studio up on nine as well,” Rythian offered. “But we can’t really search higher than that for now.”

“We’ll go up to Level Ten together if we have to,” Zoey said with surprising determination. “We’ll be okay if we go together.”

With their roles decided, Teep, Zoey and Kim all left to go down to the editors’ room. Colin and Ravs were already there and Colin already seemed to be in a bad mood. Whether that was because he’d been forced to spend time alone in a small room with Ravs or if it was because most of his staff was late, Kim wasn’t sure. Kim found that her excitement made it hard to work, but she ploughed on, knowing that she had to try and give herself enough time to search other floors while still getting all of her editing done for the day.

Zoey started poking around the office around twenty minutes after they got back, looking through the filing cabinets and cupboards. Colin tried to ignore the rummaging, but after about five minutes he looked up with a scowl. “What are you looking for Zoey?”

“Um, my purple folder?” Zoey suggested. Kim felt sure she saw a vein throb in Colin’s temple.

“It’s on your desk,” he said slowly.

“Silly me,” smiled Zoey, heading back to her desk as if if was totally normal to not see large, brightly coloured folders on the desk in front of you. For the sake of Colin’s sanity, Kim decided to hold off her investigation of floors three and four until later on.

In the mid-morning, she went off to investigate the third floor under the pretense of getting a cup of coffee. It was dark when the lift doors opened onto Level Three, but when she stepped out a motion sensor turned on the lights. This was definitely the most slick and modern level of Yogtowers, which made sense since this is where they brought all the investors they wanted to impress. The lift opened up not into a corridor but into a large open-plan series of meeting rooms divided by glass panels. Each of these small booths contained a large flat-screen tv and a whiteboard with several markers. One which had only been partially erased still contained odd phrases such as ‘continued investment over a three-month period’, ‘developing synergistic technologies’ and ‘sales of records per annum’. Kim looked over these booths, but there definitely wasn’t any space for a key to be hiding.

Continuing further in, she came to a much larger boardroom, with a huge polished meeting table and high-backed black chairs. This room had a large projector screen, with a whiteboard either side. It also had a series of cabinets along the back wall and a fancy drinks cabinet in the corner. Kim began to feel more confident - now this was the kind of place that a key could be hiding. She pushed open the glass door and entered the larger boardroom. Yes, she was definitely going to find the key here.

She began by opening the drawers and the cabinets and gently sifting through the contents. There were folders, stacks of printed papers and extra blank papers, stationery, files and organisers. As carefully as Kim looked, there was no key to be found. Kim discarded this failure, instead feeling even more sure that she would find the key in the drinks cabinet. She opened this and began pulling out bottles of gin, whisky, rum and vodka, emptying the entire cabinet. Nothing. Again, Kim felt no disappointment, only even greater confidence. She replaced the bottles, then took a seat at the great table. Why even search? The key was here and she was certain to find it. It would come to her if she just waited.

Almost ten minutes past with Kim’s chest swelling with even greater excitement about finding the key before her text tone broke her out of her thoughts. What was she doing? The key wasn’t going to come to her, what kind of bullshit was that? She glanced at her phone, which had a text from Teep simply asking, ‘Any luck?’ Kim text back, ‘No.’

She got to her feet to resume searching, but when she did that same heady overconfidence began to affect her again. Kim fought the feeling and hurried back over to the lift. Only once she had left the business centre behind did her thoughts begin to clear. What had Teep said the anomaly of the Business Centre was? Right, changes to perspection. The key wasn’t there at all, she just thought it was while the anomaly affected her. Kim cursed herself for being so easily swayed by it. No wonder the Yogscast had their investor meetings there. All those investors probably thought they were onto a sure fire deal after ten minutes in that board room.

Giving the third floor up as a bad job, she returned to the editors’ room and resumed her work. She still had to search Level Four, but with all the admin staff there, she’d be best waiting until they went for lunch until she started poking around.

When the clock ticked past twelve, she began keeping an eye out for the admins on their way to the lunch room. She got lucky forty-five minutes later, when she heard Minty laughing in the corridor. Casually strolling from the room so as not to rouse suspicion, she headed to Level Four. When she left the lift, the little fourth floor reception was empty, so she jumped up onto the counter and swung her legs over to land on the other side. She walked lightly through, but it did seem like they were all gone. Kim rejoiced in her luck, but she didn’t celebrate too quickly. Being the admin base of operations, this floor was packed full of cubby holes and folders and drawers, any one of which could hold a key. The admins might be gone for half an hour, but they could return far quicker. She discounted the computer base and the central office, as they would take too long to search. Wandering down the corridor, she had almost passed by the room to her left when something caught her eye and she turned back. A small plaque on the door read: ‘Multilevel Filing System Storage’. Intrigued, Kim pushed open the door.

Beyond, lay the biggest warehouse that Kim had ever seen. She couldn’t even see the far side for all the boxes and crates stacked up in front of her. If she looked hard enough, she could probably find the Ark of the Covenant in here. Her heart sank. How could she possibly find something as inconsequential as a key in all of this? Finding a needle in a haystack would be a far easier task. The key might not even be here. But she had to try.

Beside the door there was a small stand containing several crowbars labeled ‘Take One’. Kim picked one up and then walked the rows and stacks, hoping for a clue. They were labeled, but usually in categories. ‘Office furniture’ was one, were as ‘unused scripts’ was another. ‘Memos’ was a huge stack of precariously piled papers, presumably every memo ever sent by anyone in Yogtowers. No doubt there was some confidential information stored in there, but the chances of finding any of it amongst the rest was so miniscule that it’d be foolish to try. Kim selected one at random and pulled it out. It simply read:

_‘To Sjin,_

_We’re playing Guild Wars 2 in the staffroom at lunch._

_Hannah.’_

Kim rolled her eyes. Insightful.

After she walked a bit further though, she realised that the categories were filed alphabetically. She’d already worked her way up from ‘O’ to ‘M’, so if she kept going this way she’d hit ‘K’ fairly soon. There was so much crap in between though that the walk still took several minutes. She was fairly sure that 50 crates was an unreasonably large storage of light bulbs and why did they have a large selection of language textbooks? When did they ever think they were going to need that many lab coats? And while kitchen utensils were useful, she didn’t think two entire rows of them were justified. Nevertheless, she finally came to a selection labeled ‘keys’.

There were crates piled up and Kim got the feeling that it wasn’t just one key per crate. Using her crowbar, she opened the first crate and her fears were confirmed. It was full of keys, a thousand keys or more. She pushed it over with much effort and the keys cascaded around her feet onto the floor. She pushed and prodded the pile, looking for one that matched the metal of the door on Level Two, but she couldn’t see any. Knowing that she could just have missed it, she moved onto the next crate and upended it as well. This time she picked up a black metal key, but it seemed too small to be the right one. She pocketed it and moved onto the next crate and did the same thing. She continued on until all the crates had been emptied and she was surrounded by mountains of keys. It was useless. She had seven keys in her pocket, any one of which could be the right key, but which most likely weren’t. It was the best she could do. She abandoned her crowbar in a nearby aisle and then hurried back in the direction of the door. The last thing she wanted was to get caught here; having to pick up all of those keys was the worst punishment they could give her.

Miraculously she found her way back without getting lost, so she slid through the door and back into the warm office. She crept back down the corridor, aware that she may no longer be alone, but her luck held a while longer. In fact, she had just touched her feet back down on the correct side of the reception desk when the lift opened and Minty and Tom walked through the door.

“Ah, hello Kim,” Minty said with a smile. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Oh, I was wondering if you keep keys down here,” Kim said, improvising on the spot. “We’re locked out of one of the cupboards in our room.”

“Oh, how unfortunate,” Minty said, with a slight frown on her usually cheerful face. “I’m afraid we don’t keep keys around here really.”

“Perhaps in the sorting room,” Tom suggested. “I could go and check.”

“Oh no, it’s okay,” Kim said quickly, wanting to put a little more space between her and the Multilevel Filing System Storage before anyone started poking around in it. “To be honest, Ravs has probably got fed up with it and broken it open by now. Thanks anyway!”

She quickly escaped upstairs, with her pockets faintly jangling with keys. Her trip might have been successful, but she wouldn’t know until they could try these keys in the door. Most likely, the key was somewhere in that huge pile, if it was there at all. Kim cursed. This building was too big to search for one little key.

The lift stopped on the fifth floor, but when Kim went to get out, she ran into Turps. "Ah, Kim!" he said with a smile. "Just the person I was looking for. Lewis has asked to speak to you. I need to show you to his office."

"Oh. Did he say why?" Kim asked nervously. Had Hat Films already outflanked her and went to Lewis themselves? Had they told him about her cornering Trott or had they made up separate accusations? She hadn't anticipated them moving so quickly. Turps didn't seem too concerned, but he always put a positive face on everything.

"I never asked," Turps said, not revealing anything.

"Okay," Kim said. They rode up to Level Twelve in silence, which was itself very unusual. Turps generally never let her get a word in edgeways, so she couldn't imagine why he would be so quiet unless it really was bad news and he just didn't want to be the one to break it to her. After a minute, she couldn't stand his silence anymore.

"Everything okay Turps?" she asked.

To her surprise, Turps broke out in the biggest beaming smile that she had ever seen. "Actually," he said, pride clear in his voice. "I just got a phone call from my wife. She's going to be having a baby. I'm taking the rest of the day off. I’m heading home after I show you to Lewis’ office."

"Oh!" Kim exclaimed, happy for him but mostly relieved that he hadn't been pre-informed that she was about to be fired or something. "That's fantastic Turps, congratulations!"

"Thank you," Turps grinned. The lift came to a stop at the twelfth floor, but strangely the lift doors didn't open. Kim was able to ask if it was broken when Turps pulled a lanyard out of his shirt with a small token attached. He swiped this in front a sensor above the elevator buttons and then the doors opened. "Security measures," he explained offhandedly. "Just go straight down the corridor," Turps said, pointing the direction to go. "It's through the glass door at the very end."

Kim got out of the lift, but Turps stayed behind, giving her a little nod before the doors closed and they were separated. Kim felt suddenly very alone. Lewis was the co-owner of the company and her ultimate boss. Most of the people she knew here who had known Lewis for a long time were good people, which surely must mean he was as well? But sometimes stress and power could change people. Beyond that, there were the anomalies. Kim had no idea what the twelfth floor might hold, but she knew there would almost certainly hold something.

She decided to follow Turps' advice and just walked slowly down the main corridor. It was not built like the corridors downstairs which were typical office bland. This corridor was cool silver with brushed aluminium accents, a plush red carpet and black ebony wood floors. It looked like the interior of a futuristic spaceship smashed together with an opulent English manor.

Several doors led off to the left and right. This was clearly Lewis' floor, so Kim presumed that these were for his personal use - maybe a small personal kitchen, an executive bathroom, a larger room for group meetings, and all the other things a busy man might need while working. Maybe even a bedroom for late nights in the office.

She concentrated on the opalescent glass doors at the end of the corridor which Turps had told her led to the office. The air was thick in here, like she had to put more effort into walking than usual. The saturation of colours was dropping too, making the world slowly turn grey. It was even getting faintly colder. Kim shivered. She didn't like this floor. It seemed depressing. Why would Lewis, who could presumably choose any floor to situate his office, chosen this one?

Towards the end of the corridor, small piles and particles of dust began to clutter the corners of the room, although they hadn’t been visible further back. She wafted away a few particles that drifted towards her and they simply vanished into nothingness. Curious, she kicked at a pile of dust along the wall, but it gave no resistance and whirled away into invisibility in the air. Strange as ever.

She knocked at the door and heard a faintly familiar voice say, “Come in!” Pushing open the door, she surveyed the room in shock. It was completely grey. Lewis was dark-haired and skinny, and he wore surprisingly casual clothes for such an important man. However, what immediately caught Kim’s attention were the manacles fastened around his wrists and ankles which dragged behind them long, thick metal chains. The chains didn’t impede him as he worked, scribbling away in a thick file on his desk, but they seemed to hold a weight nonetheless. Lewis was clearly quite a young man, but the worry lines on his face aged him prematurely. He looked like he had been working in this very spot for decades.

Otherwise, it was a nice office, or it would have been if she could still see any colour other than grey. It appeared to be the same style as the corridor beyond, so the carpet was probably supposed to be red. The desk was clearly made of an upmarket glossy hardwood, and it was large enough to hold several in and out trays and a lamp. There was a large painting on one wall that seemed to portray an ancestor; the man looked remarkably like Lewis, but in the gear of a Victorian explorer as well as being the proud owner of both a British bulldog and a glorious moustache.

“Ah, Kim,” Lewis said, standing and extending a hand to her. “It’s good to finally meet you.”

“You too,” Kim said, shaking his hand. One of the chains wrapped itself around her wrist as she pulled her hand back, which made her flinch, but then it dropped again to her relief. “If you don’t mind me asking, was there a purpose to this meeting other than to meet one of your employees?”

“Of course, straight to business,” Lewis nodded. “Well, it’s simply the matter of your new contract. As a presenter, we’ve edited your contract to reflect your new status and you need to sign.”

Kim relaxed. Okay, Hat Films hadn’t tried to go to Lewis or get her fired. This was just the formal signing of her new contract.

“There is also one other matter,” Lewis added, making Kim worry again, but his tired smile assured her that he wasn’t about to drop a bombshell on her. Unfortunately, she was wrong.

“We’re going to be starting a new series about horror games, the working title is Fright Night. Originally I was going to have Hat Films head up the presenting team, but…” Lewis cleared his throat slightly. “Well, we’ve been having a few pay disputes with them recently and they are refusing all non-essential work. So I would like you to present it instead. You’ll have a co-host of course, or maybe a rotating partner, but we will work out the details down the road. I’d just like to get your signature on the contract today.”

Kim blinked several times, staring at him dumbfounded before she found the words to speak. “Just to be clear. You want me to present a new show. That was going to be headed by Hat Films. You’re taking one of their shows and giving it to me.”

“Yes, that’s right,” Lewis nodded, like this was cause for celebration. “I was very impressed with your episodes of YogNews. That level of quality from a complete novice?” He nodded in satisfaction. “Anyway, let me get the copy of the contract.”

He got up from the table and walked over to the safe that was located on the nearest wall. The chains elongated as he walked, soundlessly snaking behind him on the floor. They didn’t seem to weigh himself down either, as least not physically. Still, when Kim looked at them she wanted to shudder. Lewis’ office had to be one of the creepiest anomalies that she had seen here.

It was an old-fashioned safe, the kind with a single dial on the front, but Kim couldn’t see the code that he put in because of the way Lewis had positioned himself. The little square door gave a loud squeak as he pulled the handle and it opened. He reached inside and pulled out a large envelope. Lewis set it down on the desk, shifting as he did so, and revealing the contents of the safe. There were several small, shiny bars of what looked like pure gold, a few envelopes and folders that presumably contained top-secret documents, and two small glass decanters filled with a pale grey liquid. Some kind of alcohol, Kim reasoned, but it could well be a really good vintage of apple juice for all she knew about high-class liquor, particularly when she could only see it in greyscale. But what caught her eye above all else, despite being almost invisible in the dark safe, was a black metal key that just caught the light of the lamp on the wall. She barely had time to look at it before Lewis closed the safe door, but Kim was certain that it had to be the key to the basement. Compared to the useless keys she had in her pockets, she just had a feeling that the key in the safe had to be the one. Who else would possibly have it? If Hat Films had the only other copy, then Lewis’ key was her only hope. However, it was in the safe. Could she get around that?

“There you go,” Lewis said, extracting her new contract from its large brown paper envelope. “I like to keep them nice and safe until they can be signed. Read it over and then we can sign if you find it acceptable.”

He gave her a tight smile and then returned to the forms on his desk, giving her time to read it over at her own speed. Kim’s head was already spinning with thoughts of how she could possibly extract that key from Lewis’ safe, so it was a chore to get her head down to legal nitty gritty. Fortunately, Turps had stuck very closely to the terms that they had already agreed. Kim didn’t feel that it was necessary to keep any reservations. The only new element was a NDA - a non-disclosure agreement - which made her slightly hesitant.

“What does this mean?” she said, gesturing to the paper. “It says that I can’t take information outside of the company.”

“Oh, it’s fairly standard,” Lewis said. “I’m sure you can understand that it would hurt the company if we developed a series and then somebody was headhunted to another studio and took all of our pre-production ideas with them.”

Kim nodded. That wasn’t the part that she was worried about, as she had no plans to jump ship to one of the other companies like Polaris. She was more concerned with how the NDA might affect her ability to deal with problems within Yogtowers. Her ‘Plan B’ had been to inform the police about Hat Films’ nefarious deeds, if she couldn’t handle it herself and she managed to get some sort of proof. Signing the NDA would stop her from doing that without losing her job - although getting the station’s biggest stars locked behind bars probably would have cost her her job anyway.

“Unfortunately I can’t accept your contract unless you sign it,” Lewis said, covering his awkwardness with a slight cough. “It’s just company policy.”

Kim picked up the pen and signed, quite aware that in doing so she was legally agreeing to keep the Yogscast’s problems in-house. Going to the police had just moved from ‘Plan B’ to ‘Plan Z’. Considering how crazy she’d sound spouting off all these claims about scientific anomalies, perhaps it was for the best.

“Excellent,” Lewis smiled once Kim had signed at every line. “Welcome to the talent, Kim. I’m sure you’ll do just fine. Simon has big hopes for you.”

“How?” Kim asked, slightly startled. She had never even met Simon, so how on earth could he have already have formed an opinion on her? Had he just seen the YogNews she had already presented and liked them? But that didn’t explain why he had promoted her to presenting it in the first place.

“Oh, he’s never wrong,” Lewis just said absentmindedly. Kim got the impression that she wasn’t going to be getting anything more out of Lewis on the subject. In fact, she was distinctly getting the impression that their meeting had come to a close.

“Thank you for this opportunity,” Kim said, getting to her feet. “I won’t let you down.”

Lewis just nodded cheerily, already settling back to his work. As he wrote, the phantom chains twisted around his wrists and feet, slithering up his limbs until he was encased in chains except for his hand which continued to write. Kim did shudder this time. She was pleased to leave and raced back along to the elevator as quickly as the dense atmosphere would let her. With every step, the world regained some of its colour and warmth. Once she called the elevator and stepped back inside, everything was normal again. The lift opened without need for the keypass and she stepped inside.

Under any other circumstances, she would have been ecstatic. Not only had she sealed her place as the co-host of YogNews, but the upper management had so much faith in her that they wanted her to have her own series! However, any joy that she might have felt was squashed down by worry and fear. Hat Films were going to be out for her blood now. They had warned her to stay away, not to take on any new roles or responsibilities, and now she’d poached a new series right out from under their nose. Kim didn’t want to be afraid of them, but she was. They were going to kill her.

Her only option was to strike them first. If she’d been determined to bring them down before out of a sense of justice, then now she was running on pure fear. It was no longer a case of ‘if’ they would come for her, but ‘when’. This wasn’t about Sips any more, it was about her own survival. Thank god she already had her friends on her side.

She stopped off on Level Eight and walked quickly along to Rythian’s office. He was sitting there typing away on his computer and Kim only gave a brief knock as she entered. He turned to look at her quizzically, then said, “You’ve found it?” When Kim nodded, he added, “Hold it, I’ll get Teep and Zoey up here.” They arrived a couple of minutes later and Kim was able to explain what she had seen.

“It’s in Lewis’ office,” Kim confirmed. “I’m sure I saw it. It’s in a safe on the wall behind his desk.”

Rythian nodded, “Is it a modern or an old safe?”

“Quite old I think,” Kim said. That was odd actually, when she thought about it. Lewis’ office was so modern in almost every way, yet his safe seemed more mechanical than electronic.

“I can get in,” Rythian said confidently. “I can crack a mechanical safe. But I’ll need to get onto that floor and the security system in the elevator is no joke.”

“Maybe we can get somebody good with computers?” Zoey asked. Kim’s mind immediately jumped to Strife and Ridgedog, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to drag them into this. Hacking their own security system definitely had to be a fireable offense if they got caught. Not that Rythian’s sneaking was any less of a risk, but he had powers from the anomalies. If he said that he could pull this off, Kim was inclined to believe him. Teep began gesturing again and Zoey conversed for him.

“Don’t waste time with the computers. The security system is tight, but basic. Just use a real keypass.”

“Well, in case you haven’t noticed, we don’t have a keypass,” Rythian pointed out.

“Turps had a key pass, but he’s gone home for the day,” Kim said. “He definitely won’t be back tonight and maybe not even tomorrow.”

“And, besides getting the pass, we have to get Lewis out of the office for long enough for me to work on the safe,” Rythian added. “Even if he was next door I could sneak around, but they say he works in that office for over twenty hours a day. I can crack the safe, but not if he’s standing right there watching me.”

Silence descended for a few minutes as they all tried to think of a solution. Once or twice somebody volunteered the beginning of a plan, just to shake their head and change their mind a moment later.

“Actually,” Kim suggested warily after some time. “I think I have the solution to both of our problems.” It wasn’t a great solution - in fact, she felt pretty terrible just at the thought - but it definitely would solve both of their problems. “Hannah will have a keypass, she goes to visit Lewis whenever she wants. If I went to see her and we had a few drinks, I could encourage her to call down Lewis while she was drunk. That would probably lure Lewis away and I could find her keypass at the same time.” It did leave a nasty aftertaste in her mouth. Using people like this was the sort of thing that Hat Films would do and Hannah was her friend. On the other hand though, she wouldn’t be hurting Hannah, just suggesting something that she’d probably enjoy. If she made sure to promptly return the keypass, she wouldn’t even be stealing from her, just borrowing. And, at the end of the day, what other option did she have? Hat Films had been clear about what they would do to her if she didn’t back off. No matter how many good excuses Kim came up with though, they still felt just like empty justifications for doing something nasty.

“It’s probably the best shot we’ve got,” Rythian agreed. Zoey didn’t say anything, just looked worried about the entire idea. “It’s not foolproof though. What if it doesn’t work?”

“If I can find the keypass, that’s one thing,” Kim said. “You’ll have to find a way to distract Lewis yourself if I can get you that far.”

Rythian was thoughtful for a moment, but then he nodded. Teep agreed, while Zoey crossed her arms in defiance.

“I don’t like being underhanded,” she said stubbornly.

“Come on Zoey, sometimes you have to pick the least worst option. Do you want the Talent to get away with murder? Sometimes you have to work in the grey areas. You know that.”

Zoey continued to pout, but she gave a small nod of consent to the plan. Kim felt both relieved, yet more worried at the same time.

“I’ll get the keypass by this evening,” Kim promised them. “I’ll contact you when I have.”

They broke up their little meeting at that, with another stage of the plan set in stone. Teep and Zoey went along to the elevator, while Kim went along to the staircase to climb up to the main studio level. She needed to find Duncan to tell him that she wouldn’t be coming home with him tonight and she figured she’d check the studio before she went down to Level Six.

As she climbed the stairs, she thought over the plan in her head, paying no attention to the sound of shoes coming down towards her. It was only when they stopped that she realised she wasn’t alone. Looking up through the gaps between the stairs, she felt her stomach drop into her boots as she stared straight into the mad eyes of Alex Smith on the floor above her.

“Hello precious,” he grinned manically. Then, like a shot, he disappeared and she heard footsteps thumping down the stairs towards her. She didn’t hesitate but turned and ran, back towards the way she had come. She didn’t know if they had already found out about the new show or if Smith had just caught her alone and wanted to use the opportunity, but she didn’t plan on sticking around to find out. She burst out onto the Eighth Floor landing, her animal instinct to flee preventing her from thinking. As she ran along the corridor, she saw Hannah’s tower door ahead of her and pushed her way through. She barely slowed her pace even though she was now running upstairs instead of down. Heavy footfalls behind her let her know that Smith was still chasing her, but it sounded like he was losing ground. Smaller and lighter, Kim found it easier to move at speed up the twisting stair. She ran on down the long corridor. Kim only looked back briefly as she pushed open the heavy door to the tower proper and was horrified to see Smiffy emerging from the top of the stairs, sweaty and with an expression that looked totally mad.

Kim ran into the tower and was met by Hannah’s surprised face.

“Help! Smith!” Kim gasped, collapsing to one knee in front of Hannah, “Help!”

Hannah’s confusion turned to malice as Smiffy came bursting through the door looking like Jack Nicholson in _The Shining_. “Stay back!” she yelled, stepping in front of Kim who couldn’t do much but struggle to regain her breath. Kim dragged herself back to her feet, refusing to cower in front of Smiffy. It had been a mistake to run here. Not only had she placed Hannah in danger, but she had just isolated both of them from the rest of Yogtowers with a madman. Smith froze in the doorway, his chest heaving as he too tried to regain his breath.

“Stand aside, Hannah,” Smiffy growled. “I don’t think Lewis would like it if his little _bitch_ got in the way.”

“So you’re just blatantly attacking people in the middle of the day, are you? Even you won’t get away with this, you idiot. Get out!” Hannah yelled, pointing at the door.

Ignoring her order, Smiffy began to advance. “You don’t want to be here for this,” he warned her, with an insane smile starting to creep back onto his face.

“Get out!” Hannah told him again, her voice rising an octave.

“I think I’ll enjoy this,” he added quietly, in a deep murmur. His hands reached out towards Hannah and she let out a scream, not of fear, but of pure power. Smith froze as the birds that had circled the ceiling for as long as Kim had been coming here changed their flight pattern, grouping together and plummeting towards the floor like an arrow. As Hannah’s scream stretched out, making both Kim and Smiffy grab their hands to their ears, the birds suddenly swooped up and then plunged at Smith. He let out a cry of terror as they began raking him with their talons and stabbing at him with their beaks. He fought them off, batting at them with both hands, but it only resulted in more slashes to his arms. While Hannah continued that long, terrible scream, he fell, then scrambled back to his feet, running for the door. Hannah didn’t stop for several seconds, while the birds chased Smiffy off down the hall. Only then did she take a breath, collapsing onto her sofa.

“He’s gone,” she gasped. “You’re okay.”

The birds began to return, flying in through the roof and through the door. They settled around Hannah. She picked up the ones who had been hit, straightening their bend feathers and stroking their wings. Kim’s legs felt weak and she quickly sat down in a chair. She couldn’t believe that Smith had really done that, tried to attack her right in the middle of the building. It was clear that she was not safe here any longer. Hannah looked over at her, obviously thinking the same thing.

“I have to go to Lewis now,” Hannah said. “You understand that, don’t you? He attacked you. He attacked me. God, I could use a drink.”

Kim nodded, downhearted, but then something clicked in her brain. It wasn’t too late for the plan if she had one more chance.

“I think I could do with a glass of gin too,” Kim stated, with as much nonchalance as she could muster.

“You? Gin?” Hannah asked, with a raised eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t drink?”

“I don’t drink much,” Kim asserted. “But after that I could do with a drink.”

Hannah shrugged, clearly agreeing that it was the time for a glass or two. “I understand. Let me go get some from the pantry.”

Kim let out a small sigh of relief as Hannah retreated. The fact that Hannah had just saved her from Al Smiffy made Kim feel even more guilty about deceiving her, but there would be no better opportunity than right now. If Hannah was going to go to Lewis, fine, but Kim wanted to make sure that they had the evidence to bring them down for everything when she did. The last thing she wanted was Hat Films just upping and moving to a sweet new deal at Polaris because Lewis didn’t have the proof to throw the book at them. Kim wanted them to be proven so guilty that they’d never be in a position to hurt anyone ever again.

Once she’d started drinking with Hannah, it wasn’t hard to get her drunk. Kim kept pouring extra gin from her own glass into Hannah’s, doling out double measures at every opportunity and generally distracting Hannah from the amount of alcohol she was consuming.

It took a little over an hour, but by that point Hannah was well intoxicated. “Right, right,” Hannah said, poking Kim in the shoulder. “We need to talk to Lewis. We need to tell him and Simon what’s been going on in this company. He only ever sits up in that office and works, we need to, we need to tell him what’s going on down here.”

Kim, almost completely sober after drinking no more than two measures of gin, nodded, “Sure, let’s go see him. I’ll grab your keypass for you.”

“Great, great, it’s- it’s in my bedroom drawer. Next to my bed. Yeah, go get that and we’ll go tell Lewis exactly what we think of him and _the Talent_ and this company. Yeah.” Hannah gave the middle finger to thin air, leaving little doubt exactly what she thought.

“I’ll go get it,” Kim promised, leaving her on the sofa. She was feeling terrible, not least of all because it sounded like Hannah and Lewis were in for an argument because of her. She just tried to remind herself that Hannah’s thoughts were her own; Kim hadn’t told her what to say, she’d just introduced Hannah to a state where she was more likely to tell the truth.

In the bedroom drawer, she found the keypass amongst a selection of other cards and identity passes. One curious card, right at the bottom, showed a picture of a much younger Hannah and read: ‘Hannah Rutherford, Level 5 Security Clearance, YL Personnel’. Kim ignored it all, just taking the keypass. She certainly didn’t want to dirty her conscience by stealing even more.

Back downstairs, Hannah saw her and giggled in delight. Maybe she was a bit more drunk than had really been necessary, but Kim hadn’t been sure how much alcohol would be enough. She had erred on the side of caution.

“Maybe you’ve had a bit too much to drink to go and see Lewis,” Kim advised, quite sincerely. “Why don’t we call Lewis down here?”

“Stupid phone doesn’t work in the stupid tower,” Hannah complained stroppily.

“Well, what about the Multilevel Filing System? Send him a note.”

Hannah nodded at this in delight, “Yes, a note! Send him a note.” She wobbled over to her desk, grabbed a piece of paper and scrawled, ‘Come down here AT ONCE!!!!!’ Then she whistled over Mr Owl. “Take that to Lewis and peck him until he comes down here,” Hannah ordered the owl. Mr Owl picked up the paper and then twisted oddly as he disappeared into nothingness. Apparently Hannah used the bird to access the Multilevel Filing System. Kim imagined that Mr Owl would probably take his orders very seriously and that Lewis would probably pick up a few light wounds before he got down here.

“How about I go and make sure he’s coming?” Kim suggested after a minute where Hannah just sat looking at the rug in silence.

“Okay, Sarah,” Hannah said absentmindedly. Kim just hoped that Hannah wouldn’t remember any of this in the morning. She walked away as if she was leaving, but hid behind the bookcase when Hannah looked away. Being very drunk alone could be dangerous and Kim wanted to make sure that Hannah was definitely going to be okay.

Only a couple of minutes passed before Lewis appeared. The chains that had creeped Kim out were gone, broken either when he left his office or when he entered Hannah’s tower. He was confused, but he grew concerned when he saw Hannah sprawled out on the sofa.

“For goodness sake, what happened?” Kim heard him ask. Hannah burbled something in reply that was mostly nonsense.

“Who’s Sarah?”

Kim gave a tiny sigh of relief. At least she wouldn’t be taking the flack for this one.

“Come on, I’ll take you to bed.”

With surprising strength for a skinny guy, Lewis picked Hannah up and slowly walked away through to the back of the tower. Satisfied that she was going to be in his care for the evening, Kim used the opportunity to slip away through the main door and out of the tower. She took the lift from the eighth floor down to the lobby, while sending Rythian a quick text.

When she reached the dim lobby, he was already waiting there. Kim pressed the keypass into his hand and whispered, “We need to make a move tomorrow, Smith has become aggressive. Good luck.” She didn’t pause or look back as Rythian easily slipped into the shadows. Kim could only hope that the mission could be a success.

She walked away from Yogtowers, with a glance over her shoulder to check that nobody was following her. Fortunately she had left her car at Duncan’s, so it hadn’t been in the car park to be tampered with. Part of her wondered if she was being paranoid to think that Hat Films would try and tamper with her car, but then she remembered Smith’s mad chase. There was no telling what they would do. Smiffy in particular was unpredictable.

She was surprised to find Duncan standing out front next to her car when she reached his block of flats. He was leaning on the low brick wall that separated the small square of grass in front of the block from the street, with his arms folded. He looked… disgruntled.

“Are you okay?” Kim asked him.

“Am _I_ okay?” Duncan asked incredulously. “I’ve been looking for you all afternoon. Somebody told me that Hat Films were looking for you.”

Kim was quite surprised to realise that Duncan had been worrying about her, although she couldn’t deny that it was a little heartening at the same time. “Yeah, well they found me,” Kim said. “Or Smith did. But Hannah sent him running. I’m fine.”

Duncan ran a hand through his hair several times, clearly not particularly relieved by this assertion. “That doesn’t sound fine. What did he want?”

“It is fine,” Kim assured him. “They hate that I’m presenting now. Hell, Smith has been after me from the start.”

Duncan stood up off the wall and began pacing the width of the street, between Kim’s car, the wall, and back. “Stop saying it’s fine, it’s clearly not fine. I can’t just let this happen, Kim. I know you like to do things by yourself, but I can’t just sit back and do nothing.”

In that moment Kim knew that they were both being ridiculous, trying to cover for each other without letting the other one help, but she couldn’t help but try to keep him out of it anyway. “I can take care of this Duncan. I have a plan. I can deal with this.”

Duncan stopped pacing and looked at her, placing his hands on her shoulders. “Well, tell me your plan. I can help you! Let me help you.”

But the words just wouldn’t come to her lips. She didn’t want to admit that she had already confided in other people while not telling Duncan and she didn’t want him to come with her to Hat Films hideout. Maybe it made her selfish, that she was prepared to put Zoey, Teep and Rythian in danger that she wasn’t prepared to subject Duncan to, but if so then she was selfish. The difference was that they had powers and Duncan was completely normal. He didn’t work on Level Five and he hadn’t been changed by the anomalies over time. Teep had told her, the sixth floor gave people visions, inspiration and hallucinations. No doubt Duncan had experienced a few of those in his time at Yogtowers, but additional creative capacity wasn’t going to help against Hat Films. She had seen Ross armed with a knife and Smiffy’s room had an entire wall of weapons. It was going to be dangerous and she was only prepared to take those with her who could fight back.

“You need to trust me,” she told him, with downcast eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

Duncan let out a sigh of frustration. “I’m not the one who seems to be unable to trust here.” He suddenly let go of her, stepping over the wall into his garden. “Hat Films aren’t just your problem. No matter how much you think they are.” With that, he turned his back to her and marched up to the house, slamming the door behind him.

Kim got into her car silently and rubbed her forehead. No wonder he was annoyed, she was holding information back from him in the same way that everyone else had done to her since she arrived at Yogtowers. Was this why people had tried to avoid the truth, to stop her from getting in so far over her head? Kim could understand it now. Unfortunately it was too late to turn back. Even if she wanted to, she had to act before Hat Films could. Hopefully when Duncan cooled off, he would understand. If things went to plan tomorrow, Hat Films would be unable to hurt him and she could reveal everything.

It was not an easy night’s sleep for her. She felt regretful for not trying to explain things more fully to Duncan, even if she hadn’t been able to tell him everything. Most of all though, the plan weighed heavily on her mind. Had Rythian been successful in stealing the key? Had Lewis stayed with Hannah or had he gone back to the office early? Was it even the correct key? Kim didn’t know what she would do if it turned out to be the wrong key after all of this. And what about Hat Films? As far as she knew, they had retreated after Hannah’s birds had attacked them yesterday, but did that mean they were on Level Ten or would they be waiting in the basement for them? There were so many variables that she couldn’t control. Part of Kim screamed at her to just run and forget that Yogtowers ever existed, but she was at the spiral centre of events now and she felt like she had to see it through.

After a night of tossing and turning, she finally dozed off after four in the morning and didn’t wake up until nearly eleven. When she turned over in bed and saw her alarm clock, she wailed in horror. Not only was she late, she couldn’t have picked a worse day. She grabbed for her phone as she ran to her wardrobe. There were a dozen texts and missed calls, several from Rythian and Zoey, one from Colin, three from Duncan. The texts were mostly from Teep and he informed her of the situation without needing to return the other calls.

‘Where are you?’

‘Are you okay? Where are you?’

‘Zoey told Colin that you called in sick earlier. You need to get in.’

‘Let me know that you’re ok.’

Kim quickly text him that she was fine and that she was on her way, before tossing her phone onto the bed and selecting clothes from the wardrobe. She purposefully picked her most utilitarian gear, a mixture of what she wore to the gym and clothing for hiking outdoors: a comfortable, baggy, black vest top, a pair of camo paratrooper-style trousers, black and white Nike trainers and a light green hoodie that she generally wore while running. Other than that, she only lifted her keys and her phone. Kim knew that subconsciously she was dressing for a fight.

She climbed into the car with a bottle of water and a box of cereal bars and then set off towards Yogtowers with as much speed as legally possible. Even so, it was nearly twelve when she pulled up into the car park. She stayed in her car and called Zoey. She picked up after several rings; probably long enough for her to go out into the corridor from the editors’ room.

“Kim!” Zoey whispered urgently from the other end of the phone. “Where have you been? I thought something had happened to you or you’d been caught after handing over the keypass to Rythian! I-”

As grateful as Kim was that Zoey cared enough to be this concerned, they didn’t have a lot of time to waste. “Meet me down in the reception,” Kim told her, cutting through her anxious words. “You, Teep and Rythian. If we’re going to do this, we better do it now.”

“Okay,” Zoey said quietly into the phone. “It’s almost lunchtime. I’ll get Ravs to distract Colin and then we’ll slip away and meet you. Wait where you are.”

Kim waited in the car for almost twenty minutes. At first she turned on the radio, but quickly switched it back off when the noise began to annoy her. Her stomach felt like a nest of snakes. She was sure that this was the right thing to do, so why did she feel so nervous?

Eighteen minutes after her phone call with Zoey, she received a text with two smiley faces and a love heart from Zoey saying, ‘We’re ready.’

Kim left her car, locked it, and then zipped her car keys into her pocket. She switched her phone on to silent and then zipped it into the pocket on the opposite side. She was ready too. She walked confidently into Yogtowers, but the reception was deserted. Not even Tom Perkins or one of the other admin staff were there to welcome and direct visitors to the building. Kim worried about the possibility of a Hat Films ambush. However, when the elevator opened it contained Zoey, Teep and Rythian in their normal, unaltered forms.

“Where have you been?” Rythian demanded, waving her quickly over to join them. “Come on, I have the key.” Kim rushed over and joined them. Rythian pressed the black metal key into her hand, while Teep stabbed the button for the Second Floor.

“I’m sorry, I was stupid and wound up late,” Kim admitted. She couldn’t believe she’d been the one to hold everyone up when all of this was because of her in the first place. When they reached Level Two, she stopped them in front of the door to the server level.

“Look, I just want to make this clear,” she said, turning to her three friends. “We’re going into Hat Films lair looking for proof that they were involved with Sips’ disappearance. They’re crazy, they’re armed and they have a lot to lose. It’s going to be dangerous and it isn’t going to bring Sips back even if we succeed. I need to go on, but you don’t, so you should turn back. I mean, you’re crazy if you don’t turn back.”

Teep pressed his fingers to Kim’s head and his steady voice echoed through her mind. ‘I guess working here makes everyone a little bit crazy then.’ He gave a nod and a grin to Rythian, who responded in kind. Zoey just nodded, with a fierce look on her face. She held up her left hand towards the other two, who joined her gesture. For a moment they wavered again between their other forms and then they were gone, replaced by the strange superhero versions of themselves.

“We stick by our friends,” Zoey said forcefully, adjusting the green laser viewer that sat in front of her left eye.

“Especially when justice is at stake,” Rythian added.

Kim looked them all up and down, then gave her own nod of approval. She’d given them the option, but they had chosen to stay. She couldn’t wish for a better team behind her. Reaching over to the control panel, she typed in the digits that Strife and Ridgedog had given her months before and the door swung open. As she stepped over the threshold, the glimmering purple sword materialised at her waist. The others eyed it with surprise and appreciation of a fine weapon, but they didn’t comment. They too were used to the anomalies by now.

“I had Ravs call down with a technical problem,” Rythian whispered. “If we are quiet, the techs will be too busy trying to figure that out to notice us. I’ll check that they are busy.”

Even though the server level was quite brightly lit by the overhead arc lights, Rythian still managed to melt into the shadows. He was little more than a silver blur as he passed through the room, over towards the little break room that Ridge and Strife had made for themselves. After just a few moments, Rythian came quickly scaling back and gave the group a thumbs up to continue. He’d never made a sound. Zoey and Teep began to pad across the room to the door at the back, so Kim zipped her phone away and followed them.

They reached the door without alerting anyone and then passed through so that the four of them were clustered in front of the much more ancient door in the little anti-chamber.

Kim held up the key, comparing it to the metal fittings of the door. The material they were made from was identical. It was a struggle to fit the key into the lock, as though it was being magnetically repelled, but when it slid in truth it made an audible click.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Rythian asked as she took the key in both hands.

“They’ve threatened me and attacked me too many times,” Kim said. “They banished Sips to a different dimension. They are a danger for as long as they can survive without being brought to justice. I know it’s dangerous, but I won’t live my life in fear. So, yeah, I’m sure.”

Once she had properly inserted it, the key turned easily in the lock, not with a light click, but with a deep booming echo. With the door unlocked, it opened with just a slight turn of the handle. Cold air immediately swirled up from the dark, stone spiral staircase that led downwards. Kim tightly grasped the hilt of her sword.

“No turning back now,” she said, before taking her first step onto the staircase.

The stairs quickly descended. After one full turn of the spiral, Kim estimated that they must be on the ground floor of the building. One turn more and they must be already underground. The stairs just continued on, three, four, five, six turns. They walked in silence, with just their weapons to hand and a torch’s light to lead them, wondering how far underground the staircase was going to take them. Every so often a dim blue light punctured the darkness.

On the seventh turn, the stairs straightened out into a short, narrow corridor of the same dark stone brick. There were no doors leading off either side, so Kim continued walking. Zoey walked beside her, while Rythian ranged slightly ahead checking for traps and Teep brought up the rear. The air grew colder and there was little light, but Kim felt about as safe as was possible when she had these guys by her side. Besides, she had her sword here. At least she could fight.

Ahead, the beam of Zoey’s torch caught a reflective metallic surface. They all paused, but then they realised that it was just the far wall. It was a round, steel door, similar to the one that gave access to the server level. It was oddly out of place amongst the stone and wood of the corridor and spiral staircase.

“How do you think we get in?” Zoey asked, but her question was soon answered when her light revealed that the door was already semi-ajar. Teep wrapped his claws around the gap in the door and heaved with all of his beastial strength. It wasn’t easy, but the door slowly swung open. “Onwards,” Zoey said, still with a cheerful smile.

As they stepped through the door and further into the dark, they all looked up to read the low-hanging sign that skimmed Teep’s head as he passed under it. In dusty, faded print that meant nothing to any of them, it simply read: _‘Welcome to YogLabs.’_


	13. The Labyrinth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim journeys further into the darkness with Teep, Rythian and Zoey to encounter Hat Films.

The dark stretched on forever. The dim lights along the way illuminated the path, but not for more than a few feet in either direction. The four of them moved in silence. The space was colossal, with sprawling corridors and vast halls, all cloaked in darkness. Every so often there were small flashing lights high up on the walls, little blinking LEDs, and the hum of machinery. Whatever this place was, it gave the impression that it was only sleeping. It remained dormant, not dead.

After padding on quietly for a while, they came to a place where two corridors intersected and Rythian suggested that they stop. They came to a halt, each one of them looking down a different dark corridor.

“Hat Films did not build this,” Rythian said, speaking softly but even so his voice echoed in the empty halls. “It’s a labyrinth.”

Kim shrugged, “It’s an anomaly.”

Teep touched the tip of his tail to Kim’s forehead, speaking to her. _“It is the biggest anomaly I have ever seen. It seems to go on for miles. Are we even under Yogtowers anymore?”_

“This place might not exist in our reality, this whole place should be the size of one room under Yogtowers, the same way that the Multilevel Filing System Storage is. We’ll have to be careful not to get lost though or it’ll take a long time to get back out,” Kim said.

“I want to explore,” Zoey said, a tad wistfully.

“Zoey, we need to be careful,” Rythian said somberly. “They could have set all kinds of traps for us down here. If they’ve been using this place as a secret base, they’ll know the layout like the back of their hand, but we don’t. They will use that against us.”

After a short break they continued straight on, deciding to try and turn off the path as little as possible. They had walked only a short distance further when they heard a distant explosion followed by a roar of collapsing debris. They all paused, Rythian and Kim instinctively ducking, but after a few seconds everything settled, with just faint echoes bouncing back to them from the maze of corridors.

“Do you think they set off a trap by accident?” Zoey asked, a slight note of fear in her voice.

“Perhaps,” Rythian shrugged, “or perhaps they are deliberately destroying evidence. I don’t know.”

“Well, do we go towards it or away from it?” Zoey asked.

“We go towards it,” Kim decided, after a moment of hesitation. “That noise is where Hat Films is and we need to find them.”

“Could be a trap,” Rythian stated. Kim simply nodded. She knew.

“I will go ahead,” Rythian said, pulling his scarf more tightly around his face. He was gone in an instant, leaving Zoey, Kim and Teep to follow after him. Fortunately they were well equipped to the darkness that was growing even deeper around them. The little green panel that sat over Zoey’s eye gave her night vision in that eye, while Rythian’s cat-like eyes meant he could naturally see better in the dark. Kim’s eyes were adjusting at a more human rate, but she was growing used to the dark now, even if she couldn’t see as well as the other two. She wasn’t sure how well Teep’s strange, dragon-like eyes could see, but he followed Zoey and Kim down the corridor without complaint, ready to take on any danger that sprung at them from behind.

After they had walked for another ten minutes, Kim began to realise just how big this place really was. They had walked for almost an hour since entering the door on the server level and there was no indication that they were close to the edge of this ‘Yoglabs’, whatever that even meant. She began to feel more than a little creeped out at what this place really was. It might be Hat Films base now, but what had it been before?

She steeled her resolve. The perceived safety of turning back was false, she knew that. If she didn’t get Hat Films now, they would get her later. This was just how it was. She had come all this way, and roped Zoey, Rythian and Teep in as well, so there couldn’t be any turning back now. None of them seemed anxious, so she couldn’t be the one to let the team down after dragging them all down here in the first place.

“Rythian is ahead,” Zoey warned, which Kim was thankful for. Kim couldn’t see him at all and she’d probably have had a heart attack when he loomed out from the shadows a moment later if she hadn’t been expecting him.

“The debris is here,” Rythian said softly. He gestured to the right. Zoey held up a light and then Kim could see that the corridor ahead of them ended in a T junction. The corridor leading right was blocked by a ton of debris - it looked as though the entire ceiling had caved in. The only way to continue was to follow the route to the left.

Teep touched his tail to Zoey’s temple and she translated his words to the others in the same fashion she did when he was signing. “So this is the way Hat Films wish us to go? Is it wise to follow their path?”

“That depends, do you think they are leading us away from their base or towards it?” Kim asked in reply. She took the opportunity of their pause to lean against the wall and rest her feet. “I don’t know what their endgame is.”

“I think to go any other way invites getting lost,” Zoey said for Teep.

“I’m worried that we’re going to pass into a corridor and suddenly the doors are going to slam shut ahead of us and behind us,” Rythian admitted. “This place makes me uneasy, beyond Hat Film’s presence here.”

“It’s spooky,” Kim agreed, quite seriously.

“Maybe I should try my heat sensors,” Zoey suggested, suddenly bright again. “I forgot about those.” Her eyes flickered up and down as she seemed to be visually selecting options on her little glass eye panel. She looked to the left and squinted. “There’s definitely heat sources down that way, it could be them.” Then she turned her head to the left and jumped so much that she stepped back onto Kim’s toes.

“What is it?” Rythian asked quickly, as Kim cursed under her breath, rubbing her sore foot.

“Something huge and very hot,” Zoey said, blinking and swinging her eye glass away from her eye. “Very bright. A power source? A generator? It’s only a few rooms over, I think. If there’s anything in that direction I can’t see it over the interference.” She looked behind them, down the corridor they had already come, but then she just shook her head. “Nothing back there.”

Teep raised one arm and pointed a claw in the direction of the corridor to the left. Zoey didn’t need to translate that gesture.

“Teep’s right, the last thing we ought to do is stand around waiting,” Rythian murmured. “Let’s go.” Kim was half expecting him to swoop off into the darkness again, but he stayed with them this time, although he remained several steps ahead. Teep took the rear.

A shaded light appeared as they walked, brighter than anything else they had seen since they entered YogLabs. It was coming from a stretch of windows on the right hand side of the corridor. They approached cautiously, with Rythian sneaking ahead. He glanced around into the room on the other side of the glass and his jaw fell.

“Come look!” he hissed and the others hurried to catch up with him. Kim looked through and was shocked by what she saw. An animal pen, dimly lit by a flickering bulb in an otherwise pristine white room, contained a single pig. But it was not like any pig Kim had ever seen in real life; this pig was almost entirely square and a bright bubblegum pink. As they walked, the pig grew in size, until it exploded into dust like dynamite with a dull, muted boom that barely passed through the soundproofing around the room. After the smoke had cleared, another square pig appeared out of nowhere and began to slowly grow until it too exploded, when the cycle began again. They all watched for several cycles.

“I don’t like this place,” Zoey said uneasily. “It’s creepy. That poor pig!”

“It looks like some kind of experiment,” Rythian said. “Some kind of weapon? But who is experimenting? Is it Hat Films?”

“I don’t think anyone is experimenting anymore,” Kim replied. “It looks like it was abandoned and it just keeps going…”

Zoey shook her head, “Let’s keep going. I don’t like watching this.”

There was no door, only a window, so they could not intervene. Rythian continued to lead the way along the corridor. The computer panels were becoming more frequent now. Zoey paused at one and attempted to hack into it, but the consol demanded a password and was indifferent to anything else Zoey tried to do to it.

“Just forget it,” Kim said, shaking her head. “We find Hat Films’ base, we grab evidence, we get out. None of this other stuff has anything to do with us.”

They came to the end of the corridor, where it passed under a great steel door and opened back out into another vast, open hall. Rythian led the way in as usual, followed by Zoey and Kim. Teep was about to follow them in when the door slammed down with a great clang and a hideous scrape of metal on metal. “Teep!” Rythian yelled, pushing against the door with all his strength, but it was no use. A faint roar from the other side let them know that Teep was still there, but the door was several feet thick and muted almost all sound. It was a miracle that none of them had been crushed beneath it. Kim had her sword in hand and she swung it at the door in anger, but it achieved nothing other than sending a jarring pain up her arm. The blade struck up sparks, but otherwise was unaffected. Zoey felt around the doorway to look for any kind of release mechanism, but she failed to find anything that would open the door. She sighed, her shoulders slumped in defeat. Teep was well and truly cut off from them.

“Go back the way you came, Teep!” Kim shouted through the door. “Hurry back. It’s not safe for you here on your own.” She felt dreadfully responsible for Teep being separated and alone. Not only was he vulnerable to an attack from Hat Films, but she didn’t trust this place, this YogLabs. It was a sinister kind of anomaly, she was sure of that. If Teep couldn’t stick by them, then the best thing he could do was to leave quickly and wait for their return.

The sound that came back through the door was a pitiful yelp, like an abandoned dog. Zoey wiped her eyes and added to Kim’s order, “Yes, go back Teep! We’ll be fine. Just go back so we know you’re safe, okay?”

There was another whine, somewhat less pitiful, and then they heard the faint pounding of the dinosaur’s heavy footsteps as he walked away. Teep was gone. Kim could only cross her fingers and pray that he would be okay. He was a giant frickin’ dinosaur who could use a bow and arrow! He _had_ to be okay, didn’t he?

“He’ll be fine, won’t he?” Zoey asked quietly, echoing Kim’s thoughts.

“Oh yes,” said Ross. “I would be more worried about yourselves, if I were you.”

Kim whipped around, only to be half-blinded by the series of stadium lights that flashed on around them in the cavernous hall. Kim’s clutched at her eyes, with bright white spots appearing over her vision. Rythian, with his cat-like night vision, was even worse affected by the blinding light, falling to his knees with the pain. Only Zoey was somewhat protected, as her technological eyepiece changed from night vision to sun protection in a split second. Kim blinked through the tears with a sinking feeling in her stomach. For a moment she had been so worried about Teep that she had forgotten to be worried about herself.

“I never realised your friends were so _special_ , Kim,” Ross said icily. From the sound of his voice he must be at least a hundred metres away, but Kim could _hear_ the superior smirk on his face. “A dinosaur? I hadn’t accounted for that. But he won’t be of any use to you anymore. You should feel grateful really. He’ll live this way. For a while. I’m sure we can catch up with him later. Looks like Yogtowers is going to have a few editor vacancies soon.”

With her vision cleared up enough to make out shapes, Kim could see the huge room they were standing in. It was more than twice the length of a running track and almost infinitely tall - they stood a few hundred feet belong the ceiling, but the hall extended deep below them into nothingness. Only a slender railed pathway reaching out across the abyss from one side to the other, with one wide circular platform in the middle. With a sinking heart, Kim knew that Hat Films had expected their arrival. This was the perfect ambush point. There was nowhere to go and nowhere else to run.

“You won’t be catching up with anyone,” Rythian asserted, valiantly groping his way back onto his feet while his eyes still saw only white. “And you won’t touch us either. I won’t let you.”

Ross let out his horrible high-pitched laugh, just for a second before his face resumed its deadpan expression. Smith and Trott stood still by his side.

“Get out of our way before you’re the ones that get hurt,” Kim added, more boldly than she felt. She doubted that just trapping them here was the entirety of Ross’ grand plan of action. He was sure to have more up his sleeve.

“Oh god, she still thinks she can… C’mon Ross, you promised me, you _promised_ me…” Smiffy muttered with gritted teeth. “You _owe_ me. If you’d just let me _do_ her when I _had_ her then this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Not yet.”

Ross’ voice was like a whip crack that brought Smith back to solemn silence. Blinking, but finally able to see properly against the light, Kim made out the three figures standing on the central platform. Ross sat in a large curved chair shaped like half of an egg, while Smiffy stood beside him menacingly, barely holding himself back. Trott, the final member of Hat Films, stood hunched behind Ross and Smith. He said nothing and didn’t even appear to be looking at her. He was absent his usual sunglasses, and absent his usual cockiness. Had Ross and Smith punished him for letting slip about the basement? Or had that been the plan all along and he just had no stomach for killing?

The six of them stood in silence for a moment, none of them making a move. Kim held her sword behind her back, hoping that Hat Films did not know about her secret weapon. Her hope was that they would reveal their plan before they acted, allowing her some time to counter it. As things stood, they were in a standoff with a hundred metres of narrow platform between them. However, the only way to leave this room was the door behind Hat Films. One of them was going to have to act eventually. Then Ross let out a delighted, high-pitched laugh that sent a shiver down Kim’s spine.

“Oh, come over here, don’t tell me you’re scared to die, Kimothy,” Ross laughed. “You’ve had so much longer than you had any right to. Smith would have had you months ago if not for those stupid friends of yours.”

Kim’s mind flashed to Hannah’s scream calling down the owls from the roof of her tower, but that wasn’t what Ross was referring to.

“Your little boyfriend even gave Smith a black eye,” Ross smirked. “But no matter. It hasn’t helped you in the long run.” As much as Kim didn’t think she could be surprised anymore, she did find herself a little shocked that it was Duncan who had hit Smiffy. Ross didn’t have any reason to lie about it though. Duncan just seemed so relaxed and mild-mannered for violence. But she wasn’t going to be advocating for more Gandhi-like actions when it came to Hat Films.

“ _Fucking Duncan, fucking Quim-fucking **fuck**_ ,” swore Smiffy, kicking at the iron railing in his rage. The reverberations made the railing next to Kim wobble uneasily.

“Shut up, you _twat_ ,” Ross snapped at Smith, “When she’s dead it’ll hurt more than you _twatting_ him in the face.”

“Nobody’s going to be dead!” Rythian exploded angrily, “Except maybe _you_. What makes you think you’ve got the upper hand?”

“We’re here too!” Zoey added, still sounding surprisingly chirpy, as though she had complete confidence in her ability to defeat the trio before them. “Nothing is happening to Kim while we’re here.”

 _“Fucking filthy nobodies!_ ” Smith screamed at them, “What the fuck do you think you’re going to do about it? Huh? _Huh!?_ ”

“They have powers!” Kim yelled back at him. “You have nothing but brute strength and a sharp knife! They could crush you!”

Smiffy started laughing now, in a manner that sounded no less insane than Ross’ had been.

“Ah,” Ross said delicately, “Now that you mention it, we should redress the balance. Trott!”

Slowly, Trott picked up a box that had been behind Ross’ chair and then handed it over to the leader of their little group. He then took a step back, his hands falling dejectedly to his sides.

“There’s a lot of things in YogLabs,” Ross said. “Much more than just a Red Matter Alarm Clock. In fact, it’s something of a gold mine…”

From the box, he lifted two huge pistols that he tossed to Smith, who fondled them with an ecstatic grin on his face. They were covered in scopes, lasers and buttons, almost like something from an over the top sci fi drama, but they were definitely real. As if to prove this point, Smiffy fired into the air and thick beams of plasma shot up into the ceiling, instantly melting the metal with a fiery hiss. Ross only retained control of his steel knife, which somehow made Kim more uneasy than all the laser guns in the world.

“Take the little slut if you want her so badly,” Ross said in an offhand manner, apparently done with talking. “Kill the others.”

Smiffy didn’t need to be told twice. He raised a gun in each hand, one pointed at Rythian and one pointed at Zoey, and pulled the trigger. Zoey leapt forward, with her robotic arm outstretched, the transparent blue shield barely springing up in front of them in time to deflect the rays. Smith let out a screech of rage in having his shiny new toys so easily turned aside. He advanced on them, picking up speed as he walked, his eyes totally mad.

Rythian appeared to shudder in mid-air, almost seeming to split into two ghostly copies of himself, before he disappeared entirely, leaving behind only a shimmer like heat waves. Kim tightened her grip on the sword hidden behind her back, which had begun to emit a pale purple glow.

None of this seemed to deter Smiffy, who continued marching towards them and firing randomly at any point he thought that Zoey might let her shield down.

“Your shield will hold him back, won’t it?” Kim asked uneasily as she watched Smiffy’s growing outrageous grin.

“Maybe,” Zoey said, a slight quiver in her voice. “It’s not that good with people.”

Kim took a step backwards, but her heel just hit the solid metal door behind her. Backing off wasn’t going to do any good here. If Zoey’s shield failed and it was time for fight or flight then she was going to have to fight.

“Not going to beg?” Smiffy grinned, almost halfway down the platform towards them, “I do like it when they beg. Don’t tell me you’re just going to stand there and give in? I _want_ you to struggle. _Fuck!_ ”

Kim didn’t say anything, although sweat was starting to break out on her forehead. There felt like there was nothing she could do but wait. The only way she was going to take Smith in a fight was if she had surprise on her side, which meant keeping her sword behind her until the last moment and not allowing him to think she was anything other than frozen with fear. That part was very easy to play right now. Zoey kept the shield up between them and Smith, but Kim could tell from her nervousness that she didn’t think it was going to hold.

Suddenly, one of Smiffy’s outreached arms went flying to the side and one of his pistols fell hard to the ground. Rythian materialised for a few seconds just behind him and then he vanished again, but Smith stooped as he received a kick in the back of the knee. Letting out an incoherent screech of rage, Smith lumbered around and fired into the air, but Rythian was already out of reach and out of sight. Infuriated, he turned and rushed Zoey and Kim instead, but staggered as a shuriken came flying out of mid-air and dug painfully into his shoulder. Letting out a roar, Smiffy turned around and fired approximately in the direction it had come from. Flames made Rythian shudder back into view, perched on the railing just a few metres behind Smiffy as his scarf caught fire from the splashes of plasma. He struggled to unwind it and take it off, burning his hands and face slightly before he could fling the burning cloth away into the pit below. Perhaps it was the pain, but he didn’t fade away again, remaining visible to them all. With a cry of triumph, Smith turned back to him, reaching out and smacking him in the side of the head as his gun charged up to fire again. Kim watched in horror as Rythian fell backwards from the rail, barely catching himself by wrapping an ankle around the side of a railing and hanging precariously over the abyss below.

“Rythian!” Zoey shouted, running forward and dropping her shield. The little metal panels in her robotic hand moved and shifted until she was holding her own weapon to return fire. She lifted it and shot repeatedly at Smith, forcing him back from the edge for long enough for Rythian to recover and right himself. Smiffy returned fire, coming so close to Zoey that it singed her long, red hair. Kim felt completely helpless as they battled it out, knowing she couldn’t get in range of Smiffy before he would blast her to pieces. Smith and Zoey moved faster and faster, like they were part of some furious dance, firing and dodging so quickly that their feet barely touched the floor. For a moment they seemed each other’s equals, but then Zoey seemed to press her advantage and she was moving forward while Smith was backing off, still laying down fire in his retreat. Ross was on his feet now too, perturbed by the troubles his muscle was having in subduing three editors and minor talent. Kim’s sword glowed brighter.

She felt Rythian’s presence as he clambered over the railing behind her and rematerialised, limping on his ankle which he had undoubtedly strained or even broken when he had caught it on the railings. Angry red welts were appearing on his lower neck from the flames; more future scars to add to the silvery lines that already ran across the lower half of his face like spider webs. He was battered, but he wasn’t prepared to give up the fight so easily. He drew a handful of those little shurikens from inside his vest and leant on the rail to balance as he threw them at Smith again. The added distraction was too much for Smiffy, who avoided the stars that Rythian had thrown but couldn’t dodge Zoey’s next shot which sunk deep into his lower abdomen. He bent over with a cry, his gun falling to the floor. He was defeated.

Kim raised a hand in triumph, but Ross was also reacting. He bent and slid something quickly over the metal platform that thudded to a halt beside Smiffy’s boot. Smith grabbed the knife in one last act of defiance and pushed up from the floor with all his strength, leaping at Zoey like a lion. She was standing close, too close, and Smith had her by the throat before she had a moment to react. Rythian flew past Kim in his attempt to reach Zoey, but his damaged ankle failed him and sent him sprawling to the ground. He let out a scream as Smith plunged the knife into Zoey’s stomach, twisting it with a vicious grip.

“Let me, return the favour,” he panted through his pain.

Zoey didn’t scream, perhaps because Smith’s hand was too tight around her throat, but just let out a quiet gasp of surprise before she shuddered and fell to the ground. Smiffy drew back the knife, looked down at Zoey and then over to Rythian, who was struggling to stand. His grin widened, seeming to forget about the white-hot pain in his own body as his eyes shifted to Kim.

“Your turn, Kimothy.”

He strode over Rythian easily and advanced on Kim, who suddenly realised she was screaming. In a split second, her mind calmed and she knew what she had to do. Smith may as well be an apparition. He couldn’t hurt her. The sword glowed even more brightly, so bright now that Smith could see the purple reflections off the wall behind her. He paused a few feet in front of her, a sudden quizzical look on his face. He reached out his hand towards her. “What have you got behind y-”

Ross seemed to suddenly sense the danger, letting out a strangled cry and rushing towards them, but it was too late to stop Kim who whipped the sword around in an arc and over her head in one smooth motion, bringing the razor edge down on Smith’s outreaching arm. He let out a wild, animalistic scream, the force of the blow dropping him to his knees as he clutched at the grizzly stump of flesh and bone that was all that remained of his right arm. His hand, still clutching the bloody knife, fell to the floor with a dull, sticky thud. Kim drew back the little that she could, fighting the urge to vomit and keeping the point of her sword stretched in front of her shaking hands.

Smiffy looked from the gouged arm to Kim with an expression beyond fury, but a regression to a pre-human instinct for survival. In that moment, Kim knew that she had no option but to kill him. He leapt at her with his unharmed arm, just missing her throat, but his non-dominant arm was slower and clumsier than his right. Kim ducked the swing and angled her sword towards him. It wasn’t even difficult to fight, because he wasn’t thinking with a rational human mind anymore. When he threw himself at her again, he impaled himself on her sword and Kim drove the strike through until the point of her sword exited between his shoulder blades. Blood frothed on his lips and he spat it in Kim’s face, still attempting to claw at her as his blood drenched the floor around them. Kim kicked him off her sword and then brought her sword down on his writhing body, separating the head entirely. For a brief second she paused in disbelief as his dead body twitched closer to the edge of the platform and then gravity took him over the precipice so that all that remained of Alex Smith was his right hand and his head.

A screech reminded her of the other two members of Hat Films. Ross was frozen in the middle of the walkway, leaning over the balcony and watching where Smiffy’s body had descended down into the rift. Kim readied her sword, but she didn’t know if Ross would be able to overpower her now that she didn’t have the element of surprise on her side. Perhaps the only way to win was to create surprise, while he was still in shock at the swift death of Smith. With her heart in her mouth, Kim raised her sword above her head and charged.

She cleared Rythian and Zoey with a leap onto the railing and back, barely even noticing the descent into the blackness below that threatened to take her at every step. Rythian had Zoey’s head in his lap, attempting to apply pressure to her wound, but Kim didn’t see whether her eyes were open or closed. She was so focused on Ross that she didn’t even see Trott approach him from behind until suddenly he was there and had Ross by the throat. Even though Ross was so much bigger, a force borne of rage lifted them both to the edge of the precipice and then Ross was falling, falling away into the void after his slain companion as his scream tailed off into silence….

Trott staggered towards her and fell to one knee, just in front of Kim, who juddered to a halt but kept a tight grip on her sword, unsure of what to expect. He looked through her, his eyes fixed on Smith’s decapitated face at the end of the walkway for just a moment, before he forced himself to turn his head and look away.

“He gave Smith his knife,” Trott whispered. “He never gave away his knife. The knife was always the threat. Without it…” He tailed off, but Kim thought she understood what he was saying. With Ross disarmed, Trott had overcome his fear.

“Smith was dead,” he murmured. Kim didn’t know if he was trying to rationalise his actions to her or to himself. “We were done for anyway. Your death would have been pointless. It was over.”

Kim lowered her sword a few inches. “You finally stepped up to him. You did know what they were doing was wrong and you stopped it. That’s kind of… honourable. Kind of.”

“I stabbed him in the back,” Trott spat, forcing himself back onto his feet. “So don’t give me that.”

“Well, it doesn’t make up for what happened before,” Kim said seriously. “You knew they were going to send Sips off to a different dimension and you didn’t stop it. You would’ve let them kill me - no, worse than kill me - if I hadn’t killed Smith first. You let him stab Zoey- Zoey.” Kim suddenly remembered her injured, possibly dying friend and turned on her heel, leaving Trott standing in the middle of the walkway. Rythian was still tending to Zoey, who did have her eyes open, but they were glassy and unfocused. Rythian was whispering to her under his breath.

“You have to take her back,” Kim told him. “You have to go now. She needs help.”

“I can’t,” Rythian said, his voice desperate, “I can’t get her back quickly enough. You know how far we had to walk, I can’t make it in time, I can’t do it!” He looked down at Zoey with tears in his eyes, “Oh god, I swore to protect you.”

Kim felt like she might cry as well. This was all her fault. This had been her fight and Zoey was the one paying the price. But just as she felt ready to throw in the towel, a familiar sense of calm descended over her. It felt like being in the studio upstairs, except she was more aware of what was happening around her, but she felt completely confident in what had to be done.

“Chris will show you the way out,” she said, in a relaxed voice. “The quick way out, that Hat Films discovered. If you go that way now, she will survive. He will help carry her.”

“Him!?” Rythian roared in fury as the anger bubbled up in his chest, “He’s one of _them_. I ought to, I ought to-”

“It is the only way that Zoey will live,” Kim repeated, in the same neutral tone. “He will help us and then he will leave forever. He was a victim too.” She didn’t know how she knew, but she did. Trott seemed to have had a moment of rebellion or a moment of madness, but either way, he wasn’t going to hurt them now, and she wasn’t so much of a monster that she was going to kill someone in cold blood. The anomalies hadn’t stripped her of her humanity. She didn’t know what Smith and Ross had done to Trott and she wasn’t going to ask, but clearly it had changed him.

“Go,” she told Trott. “Take them to safety. Ross and Smith don’t control you anymore.”

Trott seemed like he could barely believe what he had done and his hands were shaking, but nonetheless there was an expression of relief on his face. For a moment he edged closer to the abyss and Kim reached out a hand to stop him from walking off, but he changed his own mind first. Turning, he walked towards the chair that Ross had been sitting in when Kim had first entered the room and pressed several buttons. The door that Kim, Rythian and Zoey had entered by opened.

Rythian clearly wasn’t happy, but he had weighed Zoey’s life in the balance and was willing to accept Trott’s help. He gently lifted Zoey up in both arms and began hobbling away on his injured ankle. Trott followed behind them, ready to show them the way. They were almost out the door when Rythian turned back in confusion.

“Kim, hurry up. Why aren’t you coming?”

Kim gave a soft smile and spoke words that she didn’t understand. “They have scented the blood. They are coming. You’ll never get her out if I don’t stay behind.”

“What!?” Rythian exclaimed. “Don’t be stupid, you have to come with us.”

“Rythian, go, or she will die.”

“This is crazy!” Rythian shouted, but his confliction showed clearly on his face. He didn’t want to leave Kim behind, but Zoey’s life was ebbing away in his hands. “She’s like a sister to me,” he added more quietly.

Kim held up a hand. “Go.”

He hesitated for a few moments more, but then he turned with a look of regret and followed Trott out of the room. It was only several minutes after he had gone into the darkness beyond that Kim felt like she could breathe again.

All that remained of Hat Films was Smiffy’s hand and head that lay grotesquely on the platform. The urge to vomit rose in her again, but she looked away and nudged both head and hand off of the edge of the platform and out of her sight. Now all that remained was the blood-stained metal, which was somewhat less gut-churning. The evidence might be gone, but Kim knew she wouldn’t forget the image in her mind’s eye for a long time. She had killed someone, and even if that person had been intent on torturing her or murdering her, that still left a mark. Just because she had no choice didn’t mean it was easy.

She waited, not sure why, except that the calm voice in her head told her it was the right thing to do. Kim had to admit that she wasn’t eager to leave this room anyway. It was light in here and all that lay beyond in either direction was miles of darkness. She stood as her sword continued to flare so brightly it was almost incandescent. A small part of her wondered why it was so bright when the danger had already passed.

She suddenly became aware that she had been hearing sounds for several seconds, noises so faint that they were on the very edge of her hearing. It was the sound of scuttling, like a bucket of crabs quickly making their way across a tiled floor.

“Ah,” she said quietly. “That would be the Swarm.”

Kim didn’t know whether the word ‘swarm’ triggered something in her mind or if the calm spirit had just suddenly left her, but all at once the realisation crashing down upon her. There were monsters coming, dangerous ones, and in great numbers. The smell of blood had brought them here and if she couldn’t hold them off they would devour her before going after the others. Kim suppressed the urge to scream. The apparitions of the server level were nothing compared to this and she hadn’t even fought those monsters by herself. The voice in her mind seemed to tell her all of this, but didn’t offer any advice on how she was to get out of it. Kim gripped the sword in her hand. She supposed that she knew - once again, she had to fight.

The waiting was agony, as the sounds grew closer and more horrifying. The scuttling was constant, but it was accompanied by the gloopy sound of wet flesh hitting the ground repeatedly and the tearing of metal. All the tiny hairs on Kim’s neck stood in horror. She moved towards the centre of the room, where it was brightest and where the monsters would have to approach from both sides over the slender metal platforms. For a moment she looked for the buttons on the chair that would close the door on one side, but after thinking it over, she realised that blocking the monsters there would only send them after Rythian, Zoey and Trott all the quicker, making her sacrifice all the more useless. Kim just hoped that Teep was long gone by now.

The noise grew until it was nearly deafening, echoing around and around the huge empty space. Kim stripped off her hoodie tossed it aside, so that she was as free to move as possible. She tightened her grip on her sword, her palms sweaty and her legs feeling weak.

It was the fast ones that came first. A skinny, twig-like creature with long rapier claws and no eyes scrabbled its way around the corner in front of her and rushed down the platform, moving with an unnatural speed and gait. Kim whirled around with her sword to meet it, cutting it cleanly in two so that it fell twitching to the floor. Before she had time to breathe, another creature coming from the other direction came and she swung at this one too, chopping it down in three strokes. These monsters were flesh and blood, unlike the apparitions of the server level which dissolved into golden binary. The creatures were coming at her from both ends of the room now and she had to be careful not to fall on the slippery blood. She batted away a small furry creature with inch-long teeth that fell away into the void and then was faced with a figure that was almost human but had large eyeballs covering its entire body. Kim stabbed at it and it exploded all at once in a mess of green fluid.

She fought on against the hoard, her mind retreating to try and protect itself while her body took over. This wasn’t the same calm that came upon her like in the studio or that had ordered her to send Rythian away, which was an external force, but the kind of internal muscle-memory that she had learned fighting with Strife and Ridgedog. She hacked, slashed, parried and moved in a methodical, easy manner, as though she had practised these moves a thousand times before. The anomalies had enhanced her abilities and now her life depended on how well she could use them.

The fastest monsters were weak, but the ones that followed grew stronger until she was faced with some that were gigantic and lumbering. Her sword flashed brighter and brighter in her hand until that it was just a white streak that was painful to look at. Everything crumbled before that heat, even a section of rail that she hit when she overenthusiastically swung at a wolf-like monster with two heads. The more blood that spilled on the ground, the more frenzied the monsters became. Some couldn’t help but feast upon their fallen brethren and those monsters Kim cut down easily while they ripped up dead flesh and consumed it. Others, however, were purely focused on her as a living target and they were more dangerous, but nothing had managed to touch her so far except from the odd scratch and the occasional blunt blow to the arm or leg.

A sudden lull in the fighting and the ringing boom of heavy footsteps alerted her that something big was coming. Her stomach flipped as she realised that the other monsters were no longer coming after her because they were fleeing. The footsteps were approaching from the door through which she had originally entered the room and she turned to face the sound. Perhaps she ought to flee with the other monsters and continue fighting them, but that would only take her further into YogLabs and away from the exit. Surely Rythian, Zoey and Trott must have escaped by now. If she managed to defeat this last monster and with the other monsters fled, she would be able to escape. She had to try.

The first thing she saw was a thick, purple tentacle that wrapped itself around the door frame and then the monster dragged itself forward. It was so big that she couldn’t see it all. It shouldn’t have fitted through the door, but it had a jelly-like quality to it and it squeezed through a section at a time. It was like a monster made up of a hundred other monsters, perhaps other monsters that it had consumed previously. It had a series of huge whipping tentacles, reptilian legs, bulging eyes, fangs, claws on grasping arms, all jumbled together to make a dripping, fleshy, red-purple mass. Kim tried to take note of its weaknesses, but she couldn’t even comprehend the enormity of the thing. It would consume her like an elephant eating a peanut. The eyes, they were a weakness, but how could she get anywhere close enough to try and stab them? The monster mounted the platform, which swung and groaned under its weight. Some of its more diseased-looking fleshy masses hung over the sides of the platform, parts breaking off and falling away into the endless pit below. The monster was unperturbed. The tentacles reached out before it, swatting at her like she was a fly. Kim swung at these tentacles, cutting them badly, but the monster didn’t seem to care. She may as well have given it a papercut for all the damage she was doing.

Then a smaller tentacle lashed out, wrapping tightly around her wrists and up her arms with a burning pain. Kim screamed as she felt the sensation of a million needles stabbing her at once. She let go of her sword, which fell uselessly to the floor. The creature opened several drooling maws and lifted her off the ground. This was it. She should have run.

The creature was just raising her to its mouth, when the platform gave a judder. Her fallen sword was melting through the metal platform with its white-hot heat, weakening the structure which was already under an incredibly heavy load. The platform swayed twice, once to the left and once to the right, then it fell with a screeching tearing of metal. The monster dropped Kim, who managed to grab the remaining platform with one hand, catching her sword in mid-air with the other just before it tumbled away into the dark. She caught it by the point, but the heat did not burn her and the edge did not cut her. It was her sword. The monster fell away into the dark with a violent shriek, but then tentacles came sailing back through the air, catching the walls and walkways on either side of the new divide. The monster began to haul itself back to the surface.

Kim did not wait for it to recover. Grasping her sword by the hilt, she fled into the darkness. She no longer cared that she was only running deeper into YogLabs, because the bridge to the exit was gone now anyway. All she needed was to be away from the monster. She fled deeper and deeper into corridors, not even keeping track of which way she turned, just wanting to put as much space between her and the monster as she possibly could. When she came across smaller monsters, they either fled or she cut them down. After that beast, she wasn’t going to let anything stand in her way.

Eventually, she slowed to a halt after what seemed like miles. She was out of breath, alone and lost. All she had was her sword, which was fading back to a shimmering purple glow now. Did that mean that the danger had passed? Only for the time being, surely. She was still stuck down here in this awful place.

Kim stopped by one of the dim safety lights that lined most of the corridors at random intervals. Holding up her arms, which still hurt with a dull pain, she realised that the tentacles had left deep purple marks, like scars or tattoos, all the way up her arms in a twisting spiral. Although she rubbed at her arms, it would not come off, not even when she scratched hard enough to make herself bleed. This place had left its mark on her. She would have worried about the social implications, if she had any hope of getting out of here alive.

Kim stood there for some time, until she felt well enough to continue. At least she had put some space between her and that terrible monster for now. Maybe there was another way out of here, an emergency exit. If Hat Films had known about one, there had to be another, didn’t there? She doubted even they had known about all of the secrets of this place. As much as Kim tried to reassure herself though, she knew deep down that she was counting on a vain hope. Hours had passed since she had come down here and she was growing more tired by the minute. Maybe these purple marks were even some kind of poison. And perhaps that broken bridge really had cut off her only way out. There was just no way to tell.

A feeling came over her that she was being watched. There was nothing to tell that anything was there, other than perhaps the faintest rustle or a slight shift in the movement of the air. However, once the suspicion dawned on her, Kim became sure that there was something approaching her. She readied her sword once again, still fighting even though part of her just wanted to lie down and accept her fate. The larger, more determined part of her mind refused and stood proudly, unwilling to accept death. If she was to die down here, then she would meet it with her sword.

The attack came from nowhere, plunging violently at her from the darkness. Kim swung around to her left at the last minute, bringing her sword up to meet the object swinging at her from the darkness. They met with a clash, her sword scraping along some sort of pole or staff of hard silvery metal and casting off a shower of sparks. For the first time since she had begun fighting, her sword had met something that it could not cut. She drew back her sword and swung again, but her strike was parried and she was driven back on her heels. Backing away, she passed by one of the pale lanterns in the wall and her opponent drew closer to strike at her. Before the figure could swing at her again, the staff lowered and the figure came to a halt.

“Kim!?”

Kim instantly recognised that voice with a feeling of overwhelming relief. The man stepped forward, lowering the staff to his side and drawing back his hood. It really was Duncan, or at least the man looked identical to him, in his ordinary clothes other than the white hooded cloak and the long staff. Kim couldn’t believe her eyes. Had she just finally snapped after the despair of being lost down here had proven too much for her?

“Duncan!” she cried out, “Is it really you?” She collapsed into his arms with relief, at this point barely caring if he was real or just an apparition, only wanting a few moments of rest from the fear and the horror.

“It is me!” Duncan said joyfully, then added with a laugh. “I can prove it’s me. We ordered Nando’s the other night and after it you farted really loudly and made me promise not to tell anyone.”

Kim coloured red and then she burst out laughing, the bubbly kind of laughter that hovered on the edge of hysterical laughter and hysterical crying.

“Why are you here?” she asked him. “Now you’re stuck here too. I just wanted to keep you safe…”

She buried her face in his chest, not proud enough to hold back any longer. She did want him to be safe, she really did, but she had never been so glad to see anybody in her entire life.

“You didn’t show up to work today and neither did Hat Films! After our conversation last night… I started to think something had happened to you. I searched the whole building from top to bottom and when I got to the server level, I found Ridgedog and Strife were fighting a horde of apparitions. That was when I realised somebody had opened the door and I was certain that’s where you were. When I met Teep, he confirmed what I feared.”

“You met him?” Kim asked hopefully.

“Yes, I told them to get out and help Strife and Ridgedog.” His voice suddenly turned slightly sterner, bordering on hurt. “Why did you go to him instead of me? When he told me Hat Films had you… I thought you were going to be dead when I found you.” Only then was the relief evident in his voice, that he had found her alive, and Kim realised what a trauma she had put him through with her secrecy.

“I just wanted to keep you safe,” she said in a small voice. It sounded so stupid now.

“Didn’t you ever think that maybe _I_ wanted to keep _you_ safe?”

Kim shook her head, “I’m sorry. For everything.”

Duncan let out a long breath. Kim could only hope that was him letting go of what she had done. “It’s okay, I just need to get you out of here. There are much worse things that linger in YogLabs than Hat Films.”

“I know. I’ve seen them.”

“Not all of them.”

“The one I met did this,” she said, holding out her arms to show him in the dim light. The purple stains swirled up her arms, imprinted like tattoos. Duncan felt them with his hands and when he drew his hands back each of his palm was purple, like a handprint painted over his own.

“Oh,” he said, looking at his hands, then back at Kim. “Weird. You need to be careful. There are dangerous things down here.”

Kim felt a bit like she was being scolded by a favourite schoolteacher, but Duncan didn’t raise his voice and he didn’t even seem particularly angry. He was kind, warm and gentle as usual.

“Oh, why are you so perfect?” she demanded, pushing him away from her for just a moment before wrapping her arms around his torso. “God damn it. I’ve messed everything up.”

Duncan rested his hand gently on the back of her head, stroking her hair. “Kim, I’m really not perfect. I have my flaws. You’re standing in it.”

Kim looked up in confusion, to see that Duncan was pointing to the space around them. “What, do you mean, here? YogLabs?”

“YogLabs,” nodded Duncan. He let her go, but held out his hand to her. “Come with me. I’ll tell you everything.”


	14. The Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After her trials and endurances under YogTowers, Kim finally gets the answers that she's been looking for all this time. However, answers come at a price.

Duncan directed them a short distance along the corridor, to what was essentially a small storage cupboard, barely big enough for them to sit in together, but it did lock from the inside. Kim had to sit in the gap between Duncan’s legs, sitting perpendicular to him with her legs leaning against the opposite wall. Two dim blue lights shone from safety panels in the wall, providing a little illumination.

“Not going to lie, it’s a tight spot you’ve got here,” she commented, already feeling light-hearted enough to joke around a little. Duncan had that effect on her. He always managed to calm her down somehow.

“Reinforced,” Duncan said, knocking on the wall of the little room which gave a solid metallic thunk. “We always needed somewhere safe to duck, back in the day. You never knew when something was going to go wrong.”

Kim looked at him, not quite sure what to make of his words. “Are you saying you’re familiar with this place?”

“Yes.”

“Is it an anomaly?” Kim asked.

Duncan shook his head. He leant his head back against the wall, looking up at the ceiling. “If I’m right, YogLabs is probably what’s causing all the anomalies. I think I once told you that the anomalies are science, not magic, didn’t I? YogLabs puts a lot of strain on the old space-time continuum. I’m not surprised that it’s started leaking upstairs.”

“But what does that mean?” Kim asked, giving his arm a shake as though that would get her the answers faster. “What is going on here? I’ve been asking for months and nobody will bloody tell me.”

Duncan actually let out a chuckle. “Yeah, yeah, alright. It’s not common knowledge, you know. I don’t think anybody else could tell you.” He took a deep breath, then looked back at Kim. “It’s quite a story. I’m just warning you.”

“I’m listening,” Kim said stubbornly, crossing her arms.

“Okay,” Duncan nodded. He took a few moments to think, collecting his thoughts, but Kim didn’t interrupt him. She had been waiting a very long time for answers; she was prepared to wait a few minutes more.

“Alright,” he began. “I suppose it all started a long time ago. I was a teenager and I was in my final year of school. I was planning on going to uni and I was trying to choose between science, which I loved, and art, which I had a natural talent for. Maybe it sounds like it would be easy to choose science, but I was never very good at it, not at school. Academic science was never really a friend of mine. But I could build things and I could make things work. I guess, really, you could say I was more an engineer or a mechanic than a scientist. But anyway, it was the early 2000s, so naturally I was fascinated by the internet, which was just starting to develop into what it is today. And when I poked around in the dark corners of the web, I met another young man called Lewis Brindley, who had just been expelled from a prestigious university science programme for unethical practice - not that I knew it at the time. He told me that he was starting up a new science company called Yog Laboratories and he was headhunting for local young talent in the South West. He was offering good money and I’d get to do science experiments and build things without even bothering with university. I probably should have questioned it, but it was such a good opportunity I didn’t want to miss out. So I spent my final year of high school travelling back and forth to Bristol, to work at YogLabs with Lewis and Simon. To work here.”

Duncan’s eyes were semi-glazed over, lost in far off tales of the past. Kim listened quietly, trying to piece everything together as he spoke. Clearly this place was the result of his work with Lewis and Simon some fifteen years ago, but that didn’t explain the size and scale of the place, the anomalies, or how that science company had ended up in media productions.

“A lot of things happened,” Duncan summarised. “But we did rather well. We expanded until Hannah, Sips and Sjin worked here too. But the real top secret stuff, that was still me, Simon and Lewis. It was all secret though, nobody knew, certainly not the government or anybody official. Lewis had been expelled for the experiments he had tried to do at university and he wanted somewhere that he could do them without prying eyes. I was fascinated. It didn’t take long before I joined him in his most illegal experiments.”

“What kind of experiments?” Kim asked hesitantly. Duncan was opening a window to his past and she had the feeling that she might not like what she saw when she looked through it.

“We didn’t hurt anybody,” Duncan said quickly. “We didn’t hurt _anybody_. It was unethical, but we didn’t realise how bad it was at the time…” He took a breath and then just came out with it. “It was clones. We were making clones.”

“Clones!?” Kim was too appalled to do anything other than stare at him with her mouth open, yet she found herself intrigued all the same. They had actually made clones? They’d succeeded?

“Yes. Lewis and I worked on the creation of human clones. Hannah, Sips and Sjin never knew about it, and Simon did but I don’t think he ever properly understood it. We were successful. We cloned ourselves.”

Kim let out a slight sigh, “And it all went horribly wrong, didn’t it?”

Duncan nodded, looking back up at the ceiling again. “Maybe it was inevitable. But there was a problem with the clones. The more you created, the more they degraded. We had to make a lot of clones you see, to try and perfect the process. What we realised was that…” He paused, then looked to Kim. “Do you believe that people have a soul?”

A little startled by the question, Kim just shrugged, “I dunno.”

Duncan shrugged too. “Well, imagine that people have a soul, because it’s the easiest way to describe it. When you make a clone of yourself, it’s like it takes part of your soul. So the first time you clone, it takes half of your soul. It makes a clone virtually indistinguishable from yourself, because you are both the same. So you make a clone from that clone, and then they only have a quarter of a soul each. Then their clones only have an eighth of a soul, then a sixteenth. It degrades very quickly from there.”

“So you only have half a soul?” Kim asked, pressing her palm to Duncan’s chest, where his heart was, as though she could somehow feel a missing part of him.

“If you believe in that. It has affected me very little. The problem was, the more the soul degrades, the more the negative traits are emphasised. When I made my first clone, I felt lighter, more carefree. But the later clones became childish, then selfish, then angry, possessive, jealous, and eventually… murderous.”

Kim couldn’t help but clap a hand to her mouth. “Oh god, what happened?”

“He was named specimen Lalnable Hector,” Duncan said, a shudder running through him. “After what he did. The cloning room was a mess. He killed fifty specimens before he was captured and confined. One of them was Simon’s master clone.”

Kim didn’t know how to feel about it. Her moral compass was suddenly without a north. On one hand it was horrifying, on the other they were clones, lab specimens, not people with families and friends. But did they still have feelings and desires and dreams? No wonder Lewis had been kicked out of university for so much as suggesting it. How could people deal with these levels of ethical questions?

“What happened next?” she prompted, even though she wasn’t sure that she wanted to hear it.

“It was a disaster,” Duncan admitted. “Up until then, those split off fractions of our soul, they were still alive and in the world with us, even if it wasn’t in one piece. But now parts of us were just _missing_ , parts of ourselves had just been killed, but we were still alive. I don’t think that could have happened to any human before in all of time. If you want to call it a soul, then chunks of our souls were gone. Not just divided from us, but actually gone.” Duncan sighed, then gave a slight shrug, “I still don’t fully understand it, but from what Lewis explained, we’ve been unreal ever since. We both exist and don’t exist at the same time. That’s a lot of strain for reality to take. Do you know how much is strains the continuum when so much as one unreal particle pops into reality for a split second? Yet suddenly here we were, three people’s worth of unreal atoms. The tears in reality began to appear almost immediately. I was terrified. But Lewis had already accounted for it, as usual.”

Duncan let out another long sigh. Clearly the regrets of the past weighed particularly heavily upon him in this place. Kim lightly patted his cheek and gave him a smile, which seemed to brighten his spirits a little. Despite his crazy tales, she hadn’t run off screaming yet.

“Lewis launched his Omega Code. All the clones, all the other experiments went on automatic quarantine. He isolated the tears and locked them away; even I don’t know how he did that. The entirety of YogLabs, which stretches for miles deep under Bristol, had to be locked away. We couldn’t tell anyone. We sealed it forever. All we had left was the little patch of land that we had owned when we had started.”

“So how did that become the station?”

Duncan thought about it. “Well, that was Sips really. Sips Co. was his own separate company that he and Sjin had worked at before they arrived at Yogs and it hadn’t been affected by our experiments, so he bankrolled building an office block for our new company, Honeydew Inc. At first, it was just an investment to recoup some of our losses. Lewis and I didn’t want to do experiments anymore, I guess we lost those parts of ourselves to the clones. I went back to focus on my artistic talents and Lewis followed Sips into business. The videos were Simon’s idea. He has an uncanny knack for knowing what will be most popular. So we made a few videos and after a while Sips became our biggest star. He sidelined his business with Sips Co. to be our frontrunner and the company became known as the YOGScast Inc. We hired new staff, our popularity grew… and well, I guess you know everything from there.”

“Except the anomalies,” Kim prompted.

“Ah, yes. The anomalies… well, they weren’t entirely unexpected, but they seemed harmless for the most part. We were still unreal after all, that pressure on the fabric of reality was still there, even though Lewis had managed to limit the effect. All the anomalies are the results of unreality conflicting with our universe. It was worrying, but they were all benign at first, so we became complacent. Nothing dangerous had ever happened, not until Sips went missing. But I never knew that it was anything other than an accident…” He clenched his hands into fists, his face screwed up in pain. Kim had never lost anybody close to her, and she could only imagine how painful it must be to realise that not only had they been murdered, but that you had worked alongside their murderers for years. “I suppose that must have been when the anomalies began to turn more sinister, when Hat Films broke into YogLabs. I don’t know how they found out about it, but once they found it they would have had access to technology that could have let them do practically anything. In fact, I’m amazed they managed to do as little as they did. But we were wrong to allow even the chance for this place to fall into the wrong hands. If it hadn’t been for you, this all could have been so much worse. But it still must be bad. If they’ve been down here meddling, then they’ve already broken some of the seals that Lewis put in place.”

“Hat Films are gone now,” Kim said. “I think Rythian would say, ‘They were their own undoing.’ You couldn’t have known what they were up to.”

“It doesn’t matter that I didn’t know, it only matters that they were able to do it because of me, because of what I had done,” Duncan said bitterly. “I created this place! It was me!”

“But the only reason it was destroyed was because of this- this Hector, right?” Kim suggested. “That’s not you.”

“He _is_ me,” Duncan said, a tone of frustration entering his voice. “That’s the worst part. He’s the worst part of myself. He’s just separated from me now.”

Kim paused for a few moments, unsure of how to comfort him or if she even could. Her own head was reeling from all these revelations. She wasn’t sure if she could match up her dopey, lovable, artistic Duncan with the image of a teenage mad scientist. A young man who had covered up the murder of innocent… clones? Things? People?

“You know, everybody goes through a weird teenage phase,” she smiled at him. “I used to think I was a total mosher. I dyed my hair red and refused to wear my school uniform.”

To her surprise he actually laughed and Kim thought everything might be okay. She didn’t like to see him upset or worried. It just seemed so out of character for him. She wondered what this, this separation of the soul, meant for his personality. Did she know the real Duncan at all then? Was this only the good, light hearted side of him, with a darker side that she had never seen? But she couldn’t convince herself that this was anything but the real Duncan. He was too vibrant, too alive, to be anything but whole and real.

“Come on, we’ll be okay,” she said. “We’ll bust out of here, we can fight with our weapons. We’ll find a way out and we’ll seal everything back down here like it was before Hat Films began poking around in here. If we can’t do it, Lewis will do it, like he did last time.” She gave him a confident smile and tugged on his arm. “Come on, we can do this.”

Duncan resisted her efforts, shaking his head and looking at the floor. When he looked up, Kim saw the wild look in his eyes. “Duncan?” she asked warily.

“We can’t just leave,” Duncan said with a wavering voice and Kim realised the look in his eyes was fear. “Or, I can’t. Lewis didn’t just seal YogLabs away to keep the anomalies in check. He sealed us away from ourselves. I can feel the other clones now, the broken remnants of myself and they’re so close. I can’t leave. I have to go to them. Free them.”

Kim looked in him in horror as she realised that he was completely serious. “What are you talking about? You need to come with me. What about that Lalnable Hector, won’t he- wouldn’t he kill you too?”

Duncan shrugged, “He will try. I’ll try kill him too, I suppose. I don’t know what will happen then. But I need to get you out of here first. You can still leave, you aren’t part of this.”

Kim slammed her hand into the wall next to him so hard that it almost felt like she’d broken a knuckle. “No, _god damn it!_ ” she yelled. “We’re _not_ running away from each other anymore. You wouldn’t be in this mess if I had just told you everything and not tried to protect you, so don’t do the same to me now.”

Duncan narrowed his eyes, “Kim, you don’t owe me this. This isn’t your fight anymore. You came here to do what you wanted to do. You’ve dated me for a few weeks. I’m not worth this.”

Kim felt a flash of anger, but it quickly faded away into a laugh, which seemed to surprise Duncan. “You came all this way to save me. You wouldn’t leave me if this was the other way around and if you try to say otherwise then you’re a liar, Duncan Jones. I don’t care if we’ve had a handful of dates. I don’t care that you haven’t been to my house. I don’t care that I only kissed you for the first time two months ago and I don’t care that I haven’t met your parents. I want to be with you. I’d rather be here with you than safe with anybody else.”

For a moment they were both silent and still and Kim thought that he might get mad at her, yell and try and force her to stop being stupid and leave. But he didn’t. Instead he put his hand to her cheek and kissed her. She pulled him closer, clutching at his shirt with both fists, knowing that this was crazy and that she was risking everything for this man and that she meant every word she had said. If Duncan couldn’t leave here without finding the other parts of his soul, then she couldn’t leave here without him. He was part of her now too.

She pulled back from his mouth, gasping for breath. “You know,” she said breathlessly, “If YogLabs is so dangerous… it could be our last chance.”

Duncan didn’t reply except for a gleam in his eye as he pressed his lips back to hers. She wanted all of him as something that she could savour, just like any girl who had been told their lover was being sent off to war, except they were both going to war and the war was already here. In a strange way, she was happy. The surface world, with all her friends, her family, her hopes for the future; it all seemed very far away now. Kim felt like she had left that part of herself behind when she had stepped foot into this place. All she felt now was the immediate rush, the sensations of electric touch as they brushed against each other, the blood pumping through their veins. It was only when it was over and they collapsed breathlessly that Kim began to cry. Maybe she had just realised that the anomalies had fundamentally changed her, or maybe she was scared for what lay ahead of them in this dreadful place, but she felt like she had lost something forever.

Duncan held her against his chest, his chin gently resting on her head. “You know,” he said softly, as her tears began to subside. “It’s funny how love finds us in the darkest of places.”

Kim didn’t reply, but just stayed leaning her head against his chest. It had grown late and she was so tired. “What time is it?” she asked him, a minute later.

Duncan checked his watch. “Quarter past midnight.”

“It’s Saturday?” Kim asked and Duncan nodded. She had never been at YogLabs at the weekend before. She didn’t think it would make much of a difference, but with these anomalies you could never tell.

“When will you have to go?” Kim asked him, looking up at him with big eyes. “To your… your other self.”

“Not yet,” Duncan said. “Not yet.”

“Will you still be here when I wake up?”

“I will,” Duncan said, with a note of determination in his voice. “I promise you.”

\---

Kim dozed off in Duncan’s arms a short time later, completely exhausted. This tiny little room seemed like it was their one safe haven, but she knew it couldn’t last for long. When Duncan shook her awake, she felt groggy, but relieved that he was still there.

“What time is it?” she asked, her words almost slurred together in her tiredness. She looked up at Duncan and her eyes narrowed. He was tense and he was sweating - he looked like someone in the throes of drug withdrawal. He was holding out against something and it wasn’t a hard guess as to what that might be. “You need to go,” she said, her heart sinking.

“It’s early. I held out as long as I could, Kim. But I have to go,” Duncan said, his jaw clenched. “They’re calling me Kim, they’re calling me.”

“Okay, just hold on,” Kim said, suddenly feeling very awake. This was no time to let tiredness cloud her vision. “Just hold on.” She quickly pulled on her clothes and attached her sword back around her waist. Duncan did the same, which made things very cramped in the tiny little room. But after a moment, they were dressed and ready to move. Duncan’s hands were shaking as he fumbled for the lock on the door.

“Duncan, look at me,” Kim said, catching his hands and making him look her in the eye. “We’re going to get out of here. If this Lalnable guy comes, then we’ll take him down. You’ll do what you need to do, then we’re going to get away. You aren’t going to get hurt. I won’t let you.”

Duncan tried to smile, but he ended up giving her more of a grimace. Kim felt much the same way herself. She wished that she believed her own words. She unlocked the door for him with steady hands and then pushed the door open. The corridor was still and dark. Nothing lurked that she could see.

Duncan led the way, seeming to know exactly which way to go. She guessed that he would know, if he had really worked here for all this time. She tried not to think about the implications of that anymore. If they both got out of here alive, then there would be time for further questions. All she could do now was keep walking forward.

“How far away are they?” she asked Duncan quietly. The faint hum of computers and distant machinery had faded now, so that they were surrounded only by silence. The absence of apparitions unnerved her after the way they had swarmed earlier. She couldn’t believe that they were gone completely, rather than just lingering in the shadows waiting for them to emerge from their haven.

“Not so far,” Duncan replied, his voice barely a murmur. “It won’t take long.”

Kim would have laughed if she felt able to feel humour anymore. He said it as if she would complain about the walk, when she wanted it to be the longest walk in the world just so they could have more time. But there was no point in stalling any longer. Every minute they hesitated Duncan seemed to grow paler, like he was fading away.

“Let’s go,” Kim said keeping her voice steady. “We can do this.”

Duncan just swallowed awkwardly, but he gave her a determined nod in return of her fierce look. Kim twisted the door handle and they emerged back into the dim blackness of YogLabs. She drew her sword and paced on the balls of her feet. Despite only having three hours sleep at most, it had been enough to rest her mind and she felt awake and attent. No doubt she’d sleep for an entire day later, but that only mattered if there was a later.

Duncan drew his own staff, the long silver pole with a sharp flame-shaped motif on the end. Kim didn’t know if he’d been gifted the weapon by an anomaly like she had or if it was one of his YogLabs creations, but she hoped it was as good a weapon for him as her sword had been for her. If the way he had forced her back during their fight earlier had been anything to go by, it would serve him well.

She scouted around, but she could sense nothing around them in the corridor. She knew she had to look out for both of them while Duncan was so distracted by the thought of his clones. The total lack of anything disturbed her. Something, a monster, a whelp, anything to show that there was life at the end of this corridor. Was this a place that even the monsters were too afraid to tread?

“We’re getting close,” Duncan told her, as they came to a crossing point. “Take the left turn. At the end of this corridor, we’ll be there.”

Kim gulped, but followed his instructions. Her sword was shaking in her hand, no matter how strongly she gripped the hilt. She had no idea what to expect when they reached the end of the corridor and she didn’t even think that Duncan knew. Lewis had been the one to seal this away, not him. They walked on in silence. It was a long, slow, deliberate walk towards their doom.

The corridor grew warmer as they approached, but the surface of her skin still felt cold and the hairs began to rise on the back of her neck. Then she could see the door, a great steel double-door with no discernable handle. Duncan stared intently at the door, advancing towards it like a man possessed. Just before they reached the door, Kim grabbed his arm and he continued walking, pulling her forward a couple of steps before she managed to stop him.

“Duncan,” she said in a harsh voice, somewhat snapping him out of his reverie. “Let me go first. They know you’re coming, but they might not expect me.”

He barely seemed to notice her talking and for a moment she didn’t think he would respond, but then he suddenly glanced at her with a clear gaze.

“It won’t open for you,” he said. “It has to be me.”

He raised a hand and held it out towards the door. A red laser beam flickered as his hand hovered above the surface of the steel, reading the prints of his hand. A hundred little clicking sounds let them know that the door had accepted the reading as genuine and then the seal of the door popped open like the door of a giant freezer. Kim pushed the door with her foot and it swung easily inwards, despite its huge size.

The room was illuminated at ground level, with lamps pointing from the ground towards the ceiling and giving the underside of the laboratory an eerie yellow glow. Tanks lined the room, with stretched far back to the opposite wall that had to be some three hundred metres away. In each tank hung a different specimen, some frozen, others suspended gently in a clear, thick fluid. The faces were instantly recognisable from the photograph she had seen in Sips’ museum that showed the Yogs in their younger state. Duncan’s face was the most easily identified, but she saw Simon and Lewis’ as well. They were all naked, their outlines almost glowing in the bright lighting, all seemingly asleep. As she looked closer, she realised that not all the specimens were the same. Many were identical to the people they had been cloned from, but others had aberrations. There, a Lewis clone with a duplicated face that was almost split in two from nose to chin, with another identical face showing through the gap. There, a Duncan clone missing three of its limbs and its nose. Other clones were in even worse states that made Kim want to retch. Tiny malformed clones, clones that had never grown, bundles of cells, creatures so twisted and broken that they didn’t look human. Abomination of nature barely seemed to cover it. Kim had been in doubt before, but now her gut told her that whatever these experiments had been, they had been terribly wrong.

Yet, despite the horrific nature of the experiments, there was quiet other than the hum of the machines, which was no stranger than the sound of a refrigerator. The lab was filled with clutter, strewn papers and beakers overturned on tables indicating the hasty exit that Lewis and Duncan had made so many years before. But no clone so much as moved.

“Where is he, Duncan?” Kim asked uneasily, still holding her sword tightly in both hands. “Where’s the one that killed the others?”

“He’s here,” Duncan said. His voice had changed somehow, as if he was praying. Kim wondered if he was hearing voices in his head. He had said they were ‘calling’ to him. Perhaps he could hear their thoughts. She didn’t know what to think.

He began to walk, still carrying his staff in one hand, towards the far end of the room. Kim followed on his heels, unwilling to leave him alone. As they progressed through the room, the tanks were often empty, with their windows smashed or their doors hanging open on broken hinges. Dark stains on the floor indicated the presence long ago of blood. Clearly, this was Lalnable’s work.

One single tank on the far wall still contained a living, breathing clone. He seemed asleep, but the muscles around his eyes were contracted in a mask of rage all the same. He was a perfect clone of Duncan, with not so much as a hair out of place from the photograph Kim had seen, but unlike the real Duncan, he had not aged. The suspended figure looked not a day over eighteen.

“This is him,” Kim said. It wasn’t a question. Duncan nodded, holding his hand out towards the figure.

“This is him,” Duncan agreed. His hand hovered for a moment, but then he withdrew it to Kim’s relief.

“It looks like Lewis managed to seal him away properly,” Duncan said, but without a hint of relief in his voice.

“So… what do we need to do?” Kim asked hesitantly.

Duncan’s face suddenly went flat. Instinct made Kim back away from him, just in time as he suddenly spun the staff up in one hand and brought it down with all his strength on the glass window of the tank which fractured into a million pieces. Lalnable’s eyes snapped open to reveal the insanity and rage that lay within. He burst through the glass head first, with a scream so vile and raw that Kim was forced to clamp her hands over her ears. At that scream, eyes opened around the room as the clones were roused from their long slumber and then simultaneously every shred of glass in the room shattered.

“Duncan!” Kim screamed, but Duncan was past the point of hearing her. His glasses had a large crack across one lens, but he discarded them to the floor and raised his staff as Lalnable burst from his tank. He met Lalnable’s charge head on and then the fight began.

They moved quickly across the floor, Duncan defending with his staff as Lalnable furiously attacked. Lalnable was unarmed, but younger, fitter and driven by the kind of true madness that could let a man break stone with his bare hands. Duncan was quickly driven to his back foot and put on the defensive.

Meanwhile, the other clones were emerging from their broken tanks. The malformed ones didn’t wake up or flopped uselessly to the floor, some had been injured by the exploding glass, but many emerged whole and unbroken. Kim didn’t dare interfere in Duncan’s fight with Lalnable, but she could keep these other clones off his back. She didn’t understand why they were reacting this way, but she was afraid that they were also going to kill him.

Some stumbled at her and she raised her sword to defend, but none of them tried to attack her, instead stumbling past towards Duncan. The Simon and Lewis clones that had broken free didn’t even do that, but just sat or stood about at the corners of the room, confused and lost. Those clones looked towards the battle between Duncan and Lalnable with fear, scattering to avoid them whenever they came close. But the Duncan clones continued unperturbed, walking towards the danger. Kim thought they were going to attack, but their faces were calm and their movements measured and slow. She half-dropped her sword uncertainly. What were they planning to do? Should she take them out to protect Duncan? But they were Duncan. If she killed the clones, was she killing further parts of his ‘soul’?

Lalnable let out another vile scream and Kim raised her sword again. She had to help Duncan, who was being forced back by the force of Lalnable’s attack. There was no way she had come all this way to allow Lalnable to win this fight. She had promised Duncan that she wouldn’t let him get hurt and she planned to fulfill that promise over her dead body if necessary.

Kim ran at the pair of them, young and older Duncan, with her sword extended before her. She slashed at Lalnable when she was almost in range, but he dodged easily and then brought a heavy fist down so close to her head that she felt the air move. The strength of that blow would knock her out, sword or no sword. She danced back out of the way, infuriated to see that her effort had seemed to have no effect at all. She was barely even a distraction.

The other Duncan clones were getting closer and Kim began to grow concerned again. The clones still gave no indication that they meant to attack, but she didn’t trust them either. Were they angry at Duncan for keeping them locked up for fifteen years? Did they mean to hold him down while Lalnable eviscerated him? She leapt to try and get behind Duncan as the first clone approached so that she could ward him off, but the moment he came within a few feet of Duncan, the clone began to shine. Duncan and Lalnable kept fighting as if nothing had happened, but Kim almost dropped her sword in shock. Even though nothing should shock her now, she found it hard to comprehend. The clone rose up until it hovered a foot off the ground, the lights beneath its skin growing brighter, and then it opened its mouth and emitted a low note, but a note unlike any a human throat could produce. Then another clone came close to Duncan in the still-raging battle, and it too began to rise up and glow, adding its voice with the same note.

Lalnable pressed Duncan back, further into the crowd of clones, and then the changes happened like a chain reaction, with more and more rising into the air. The Simon and Lewis clones were frightened, huddling together in the corners with their hands over their heads. Kim felt like she ought to be doing the same, but she couldn’t leave Duncan to Lalnable’s revenge. Again she harried Lalnable with swipes of her sword, trying in vain to ignore the cacophony of voices and lights around her. But she may as well have been a fly, so easily was Lalnable able to swat her away. She had little doubt that if he had wanted to, he could have turned around and crushed her, but all of his attention was focused on Duncan. Kim was starting to fear for him. For every misstep or mistake Duncan made, Lalnable made ground and he didn’t seem to pause or grow tired. He had the anger of a man held captive for fifteen years and who had planned his revenge for every second of that time.

The first clone to touch Duncan had risen even higher now, his figure a light so bright that he was nothing more than a brilliant outline. His flame was so white hot that it hurt to look at him. Then, all of a sudden, the light collapsed into a circle, like a minature burning sun. That light swirled in a fast, graceful arc over Kim’s head and hit Duncan in the chest. Kim gasped, thinking he had been injured, but the light didn’t burn. It was simply absorbed, Duncan himself gaining the faintest of glows. Any of Duncan’s clones that were still on the ground ran at him now, eager to be caught up in this frenzy. One by one the floating clones collapsed into swirls of light and flew at Duncan, each one giving him a tiny glow of his own. A smile appeared on his face and he leapt back, swirling his staff high in the air before striking Lalnable on the chest, all sense of tiredness gone. Lalnable simply growled and came at him again, but the lights continued to swirl into Duncan and he grew stronger with every one. Soon they were fighting as equals and then Duncan had the upper hand and Lalnable was the one defending. His furious attacks became frantic defences and he let out an animalistic howl as he realised that he might be the one to lose this fight.

Kim stood back, her sword on the ground by her feet, her heart in her throat as she followed the course of the battle. The room around her dimmed as the last of Duncan’s clones faded into his chest and the brilliant swirl of lights was gone. Kim was spent, exhausted, and she felt that she could do no more than wait and hope that Duncan was going to win.

Raising his staff and artfully wielding it, Duncan forced Lalnable back across the room, past the cowering clones of Lewis and Simon, right back to the far wall. Faced with the prospect of being forced back into that tank, Lalnable became somehow even wilder. He reached out, intent on attacking, choking, destroying… To Kim’s horror, Duncan cast aside his staff and met Lalnable’s grapple with his own hands, gripping Lalnable around the head while Lalnable reached for his throat. Duncan pulled them both down onto the floor, managing to pin Lalnable’s arms beneath him. To Kim’s surprise, Lalnable began to glow.

They looked into each other’s eyes for seconds, as if they were having some kind of conversation. Lalnable kept struggling frantically, but Duncan kept him pinned down, not allowing him to look away. They both glowed brighter and brighter, until Lalnable let out another shriek, not one of rage but of pain. With a high cackling laughter, he spit into Duncan’s face and blood began to froth on his lips and pour unending from his mouth.

“No!” Duncan screamed, leaping backwards, but it was too late. Whatever Lalnable had done, it was mortal and Lalnable writhed on the floor, drowning in his own blood. Kim, coming back to her senses, rushed forward, but Duncan grabbed her and held her back from the dying figure on the floor. Lalnable had ceased to glow and Duncan’s own glow was fading. With a few wheezy stutters Lalnable stopped moving.

Kim’s knees felt weak. No matter what kind of monster Lalnable had been, she had just watched a man drown. She look up at Duncan, who looked both disgusted and afraid. A moment later she realised why, as there was a distant but roaring boom, like the entire earth had shifted. Within seconds, the room began to shake, with the wall panels cracking and falling to the floor. The remaining Lewis and Simon clones began to panic and Kim felt like it was time to join them.

“What’s happening!” she demanded, looking at Duncan.

“He was supposed to rejoin me!” Duncan yelled over the roar of the earthquake, “I almost beat him!”

Kim wasn’t sure why, but she could figure out what he meant by that. Duncan had planned for Lalnable to rejoin him, like the other clones had wanted to, but Lalnable had other ideas. It seemed that Lalnable was happy to give up on life, if it ensured Duncan’s death.

“We have to get out of here!” Kim said, dragging on Duncan’s arm who seemed too distraught to move. She had to remind herself that Lalnable had been part of Duncan, even if he seemed so different. For Duncan, it must have felt like part of him had died.

“Come on!” she shouted, pulling Duncan forward, but it was already too late. Some kind of weakness seemed to have come over him and he fell to the floor.

“I- I-” he gasped, suddenly strapped for air, but Kim couldn’t make out what he was trying to tell her.

“Dammit, not now!” she yelled, grabbing him under both arms and pulling him along with his legs trailing the floor. “Come on! Come on!” She screamed in frustration, but she just wasn’t strong enough to pull him away. Cracks were beginning to appear in the stone ceiling and the Simon clones began to scream. Kim felt sorry for them, but she couldn’t focus on them when Duncan was almost passed out on the floor.

“Duncan!” she screamed, slapping him hard across the face, but he just stared up at her helplessless. Tears ran down her cheeks without her even noticing that she was crying. With a crack, part of the doorway collapsed and the shaking was only getting worse.

“Please,” she said, “I can’t carry you. I’m not strong enough.”

She collapsed to her knees, her arms around Duncan who lay limp on the floor, his eyes sliding in and out of focus. Was he already dying? Or was he just weakened? She didn’t know, but it seemed like they were doomed either way. The last rational part of her brain told her that she needed to go if she didn’t want to die here with him, but it was no use. She was so tired and she had fought for so long for nothing. She had uncovered the mysteries of Yogtowers, but she would never get to reveal them. She had defeated Hat Films, but she hadn’t been able to save her own life. She had tried to protect Duncan, but her actions had led to his death in the end. Kim laid down beside him with her head and hand on his chest. His heart was still beating, although she could barely feel or hear it over the rumbling of the earth. He didn’t glow any more, but just lay there as prosaic and human as he had ever been.

“I’m sorry,” she said, so softly that she wasn’t even sure if he could hear her. “I do love you. I don’t know if that matters now, but I do. We would have had a wonderful life together.”

Kim picked up the glasses he had discarded on the floor, only a few feet away from them now, and placed them gently back on his face, stroking his hair away from his face. She thought of her family back home then and her friends up in the offices far above. This would be painful for them. She couldn’t help that feel that she had let them down. At least Teep, Zoey and Rythian should have escaped, and hopefully Rythian would get Zoey to the hospital on time. But she didn’t think they would understand. If someone had told her six months ago that she would be ready to give up her own life just so her boyfriend wouldn’t die alone, she wouldn’t have believed them in a million years. Kim hadn’t ever been much of a romantic, but she supposed there was a first time for everything. She looked up at Duncan and gave him a smile that she didn’t know if he could see. Cracks spread across the ceiling and the earth rolled under her feet.

 


	15. Nothing Lasts Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuck underground in the dark, rolling earth, Kim accepts her fate. Only a miracle could save her now.

A huge section of ceiling fell only a few feet away, barely missing them both. Fragments of concrete splintered off, one leaving a red slash across Kim’s eyebrow that barely missed blinding her. She coughed, trying to cover Duncan’s face to protect him from the dust. His eyes were closed now and he was perfectly still, but she put one hand to his neck and could still feel his pulse gently beating. She didn’t know whether Lalnable’s death had caused this, but she suspected that was somehow the case. Maybe Duncan would have been fine if he could have rested for a few hours and if this entire place didn’t seem set to collapse around them.

When the dust cleared, she realised that the other clones were standing now, their fear gone, all looking towards the door with content, placid faces. They exuded an eerie calm, even while the room continued to shake and roll around them. Kim sat up, turning to face the door herself. They almost seemed to be expecting something. Kim shook Duncan gently by the shoulder, but it did nothing to rouse him.

“Duncan,” she said even though he couldn’t hear her, her voice dry and crackly due to the dust in her throat. “I think someone is coming.”

She crawled over the floor on her hands and knees to where her sword lay abandoned on the floor where she had left it. The weight was familiar and comforting in her hands. Even though there didn’t seem like much point in fighting when everything was collapsing, she refused to die on anything but her own terms after she had already fought for so long. She pulled herself up onto her feet using one of the broken tanks to balance, then positioned herself between the door and Duncan, ready to protect him once again no matter what came through that door.

Two figures emerged from the dark, ducking under the partially collapsed doorway, and it wasn’t until they stepped into the illumination of the libratory lamps that Kim could make out who they were. One she recognised instantly as Lewis, who again bore the strange ethereal chains that she had seen him chained in when she visited his office. They looked heavier and more solid than ever before and were visibly weighing him down. The other man was heavier built and stout, with a large red beard and glasses. Kim knew she had seen him around, but it took her several seconds to place him as the man that she had seen in the elevator. His expression was a strange mixture of determination and fear. With a shock of understanding, she realised that this was Simon. With an impossible hope rising in her heart, she almost collapsed to her knees from relief. Maybe it wasn’t too late, maybe with their help she could still get Duncan out of here.

“Kim!?” Lewis gaped, seeming genuinely shocked to see her. “What are you doing here? Where’s Duncan?”

Before she could answer, he spotted Duncan lying on the floor and let out a small cry of grief. He swept over as quickly as the chains would allow, with Simon right behind him, kneeling at Duncan’s side.

“Duncan?” Simon questioned, feeling for his wrist and his pulse.

“He’s alive!” Kim said urgently, “We have to go!”

The clones had begun to cluster around them in a circle, looking at Simon and Lewis like they were gods walking the earth. Kim suspected they wanted to rejoin them, just as Duncan’s clones had rejoined him, but she wasn’t sure if they had time. Dust and stones continued to rain down from the ceiling for every second that the shaking continued. Even if it didn’t collapse, they’d eventually choke to death on all the dust in the air.

Lewis seemed lost for just a moment more, before he recovered and got back to his feet. “Yes!” he said. “But there is something we have to do first.”

Kim wanted to argue, but she knew it would do no good. If the compulsion was as strong as it had been for Duncan, nothing would make them leave before they had finished with the clones. Instead she stood back and waited, covering her mouth with her sleeve.

Simon and Lewis stood and looked around to their clones, who approached with hands outstretched. Then, one by one, the clones began to rise off the ground, their skin becoming infused with the swirling lights, their voices raised in one low note. Kim watched intently even though she had seen it before. She knew that even if she escaped, it was not something she would ever see again. The clones seemed to be filled with pure joy as they shone brighter and brighter, turning into the balls of light that began to stream towards Lewis and Simon.

As she waited on edge, feeling each second that streamed by, the back wall cracked in half, exposing the solid rock behind it. Kim instinctively dove down to protect Duncan from any falling rock, but the ceiling continued to hold. She looked to Lewis and Simon biting her bottom lip.

“We need to go!” she yelled at them, but they didn’t even hear her, too wrapped up in reuniting with the clones they had been separated from for so long. Kim was worried that by the time they had finished it would be too late.

The lights hit Lewis and Simon faster and faster and they began to glow with that same soft golden light. Simon seemed to inflate, his chest growing broader as though all his muscles were swelling to full strength. Lewis did not change, but the chains that had for so long weighed him down creaked and groaned until eventually they snapped off in a shower of sparks and fell with a heavy clunk to the floor. Lewis fell to one knee after he was freed with a gasp of relief, then sprung back to his feet as if he’d never felt so light. The room dimmed as the clones one by one were absorbed, until nothing remained to ever suggest they had existed in the first place.

Simon, still glowing, turned back to Duncan and easily hefted him up and over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift, taking the fallen silver staff in his other hand. Either he was far stronger than he appeared, unnaturally so, or the absorption of the clones had temporarily granted him the strength to carry the larger man.

“Okay, let’s go!” Lewis said to Kim, turning to her with his still shining golden-brown eyes. “Can you run?”

She felt exhausted, like she could barely stand, and she ached all over, but Kim didn’t need to be told twice. She gave Lewis a firm nod. She would run as though her life depended on it, because it did. It seemed like today was not her day to die and if life was going to give her another chance, she was going to grip it with both hands. “Let’s go!” she repeated in reply, putting her sword back into the sheath at her waist and following Lewis as he ran ahead of her, Simon close on her heels with Duncan over his shoulder.

The way was uneven, with the floor cracked and broken in many places from the earthquake. More than once she was forced to jump over a pit that seemed to descend forever into the earth. Lewis and Simon seemed to manage with ease, full of the vitality from absorbing their clones, but Kim could barely force herself to keep going. She pushed herself as hard as she could, but eventually it was too much. She tripped over a fallen rock and sprawled onto the floor, unable to rise again. Lewis turned back, looked her over, and then without warning hoisted her into his arms.

“I’ve got you,” he said, before turning to run on again.

“Woah!” Kim protested, but her complaint landed on deaf ears. She resigned herself to being carried, even though it made her feel like a toddler, because getting out of here as quickly as possible had to be her main priority. Without her holding them back, Simon and Lewis moved even faster. The structural integrity of YogLabs was failing around them and now they were often having to double back from corridors that had already collapsed or dodge pieces of ceiling as they fell only inches away from them. Crashes and roars in the distance suggested that they were not far ahead of the centre of destruction and Kim suspected that the clone room had completely collapsed by now. However, the earthquake itself seemed to be subsiding, as the earth was moving less and less with every passing second.

They took a different route to the one that Kim had used to come in and before she knew it, they were actually rising. With a feeling of utter relief, Kim realised that they were almost out. The shaking was barely more than a faint tremor now, and Lewis set her down as they came to a huge ladder that rose away into darkness far above.

“Can you climb?” Lewis asked her calmly, “I should stay behind Simon, in case he has trouble carrying Duncan.”

Kim nodded. Lewis had carried her all this way, she could make this last climb to safety. The ladder was cold metal and slightly rusty, and every muscle in her body screamed at her as she slowly plodded her way up the ladder, with Simon and Lewis followed below. But she kept moving, just telling herself to keep putting one hand in front of the other. It felt like she was climbing forever, but after an eternity, she bumped her head against the ceiling and almost lost her grip on the ladder.

“We’re at the top,” she said.

“Open the trapdoor,” Lewis said, “There’s a bolt somewhere, you’ll need to feel for it.”

Kim reached up with one hand and fumbled for several seconds before she found the bolt. It was stiff, but she managed to unlock it. With the catch free, she pushed the trapdoor up with all her might, using her shoulder for leverage. As it opened, light streamed down on her for the first time in hours and she saw that they were not in Yogtowers at all, but just outside it. They emerged from a manhole cover in the car park, only a few meters away from where she had parked her car the day before. She struggled out of the hole, crawled a few feet away, and lay stretched out on the cool tarmac. Overhead, an early spring sun had just risen over Bristol and the city seemed curiously at peace. Clearly the earthquake had not been felt as strongly on the surface, if at all. Kim didn’t understand why the shaking had started at all.

Behind her, Simon lifted Duncan out of the ground, then pulled himself back on to surface level as well. Lewis climbed quickly out behind them, closing the manhole over before anyone had the chance to see them. Fortunately neither of them were glowing anymore, the temporary effects of absorbing their clones seemingly worn off. The three of them clustered around Duncan on the ground, anxious to attend to their friend now that the immediate danger had passed.

“One of his clones died,” Kim said, trying to give any information that would help. “Called Lalnable Hector. He died and the other clones rejoined him and he’s been like this ever since.”

Lewis nodded slowly, not lifting his eyes off of Duncan. He felt his pulse, gently lifted an eyelid and peered at his unfocused eye, and then examined the purple handprints that had been tattooed onto Duncan’s palms when he had touched the purple swirls that the monster had marked on Kim’s arms. Only then did Lewis look at Kim, reaching for her arm and tracing the purple lines there. None of the stain went onto Lewis from either Kim or Duncan; if it had been infectious earlier, it wasn’t any longer.

“A monster in YogLabs grabbed me,” Kim explained, in response to his questioning look. “This has been there ever since. It doesn’t hurt.” She looked at Lewis expectantly, hoping he would be able to give her some good news.

“I think he’s going to be fine,” Lewis said finally, gesturing back to Duncan. “Let’s get him inside. I want to test this purple stuff and I want to check him over more thoroughly. I think it’s just the shock of Lalnable’s death that’s knocked him out like this. If I’m right he’ll wake up in a few hours.”

“Shouldn’t he go to a doctor?” Kim asked, and then her face went blank as she suddenly remembered. “Wait, Zoey. What about Zoey, did she get to a hospital on time?”

Her mind had been racing for hours and she was tired and had had so much new information thrown at her, but she still cursed for not asking about Zoey sooner. She shouldn’t have been so forgetful when it came to such a good friend.

“What happened to Zoey?” Simon asked with a worried look. Glancing from one to the other, Kim realised they had no idea that Zoey had been hurt.

“She got injured,” Kim said. “Rythian took her to hospital.”

“Rythian will look after her,” Simon nodded, with a look of supreme confidence.

“Let’s go inside,” Lewis said, interrupting them. “I’m going to take Duncan to my floor and get some experiments underway. Trust me Kim, he’s better off under my care than at the hospital, they would never understand what’s happened to him. I’ll get him better, don’t you worry about it. You go upstairs with Simon and we’ll sort this out.”

They went into the building together, with Simon carrying Duncan bridal-style in two arms. As she got to her feet, Kim realised that both her sword and Duncan’s staff had disappeared as they normally did when she left the zone of the anomalies. Although she missed wearing it at her side, Kim felt some relief that they were back in a world that was 100% real.

They took the elevator to Level Twelve. Kim was surprised to find it looked more like a normal, if extremely fancy, office level now, without the weird chill or the dust particles in the corners. She didn’t know if it was related to Lewis’ chains being destroyed, but it felt so much more airy and cheerful. The colours didn’t all turn to grey.

They turned into one of the rooms off the main corridor that contained a large four-poster bed and an assortment of plush bedroom furniture in red velvet and brushed aluminium. Simon laid Duncan out on Lewis’ bed carefully, then took a step back. Kim didn’t want to leave him, not after they had come all this way, but Lewis persuaded her.

“Go upstairs with Simon,” he said, chasing the pair of them away. “I need room to work. I promise I’ll have you back down for when he wakes up.”

“He will,” Simon added, with such certainty that Kim couldn’t help but believe him. With some reluctance, she followed Simon to the lift, where he pressed the button for the top floor of Yogtowers, Level Thirteen. It was the only floor of Yogtowers that she hadn’t yet seen, and Kim didn’t know what to expect, but she felt like nothing could shock her now.

Still, when the lift opened, she did feel quite surprised, but mostly because it actually felt rather normal. It was a beautiful open space, a large greenhouse penthouse that stretched across most of the top floor of Yogtowers, and it was filled with little water features and exotic flowers and plants, but Kim sensed no anomaly here. As beautiful a place as it was, it was distinctly man-made.

“I grew everything here myself,” Simon said, with a tone of pride in his voice.

“It’s beautiful,” Kim agreed, looking at everything in wonder. A couple of exotic birds were perched here and there amongst the branches of finely manicured trees, which filtered the pale orange sunrise in dappled shade across the room. This was clearly the result of years of close attention and hard work. She was amazed that Simon had managed it, considering all the work he had to do with the station.

“Cup of tea?” he asked casually, wandering through the rows of plants to a central raised platform surrounded by a little stream. Kim just nodded in response. There was an old-fashioned teapot steaming in a tea cosy on a charcoal brazier, and two teacups resting on a small coffee table between two comfortable armchairs. It looked to Kim suspiciously as though he had been expecting this meeting. Knowing that it sounded crazy, but being too tired and weary to care about sounding strange, she just asked the question that popped into her head.

“Simon, you can see the future, can’t you?”

He looked at her in surprise, then assumed his chair and began pouring tea for the two of them. It wasn’t until he had added sugar and taken a sip that he answered. Kim didn’t push, but waited in silence.

“I can’t see everything,” he said, with a small smile. “Otherwise I’d have known you were going to ask me that. But yes, in a way, yes I can.”

Kim only nodded. A few things fell into place in her head, despite how insane the claim sounded. Compared to YogLabs, being able to see the future seemed practically normal. It explained why Simon had chosen her to present YogNews for one thing, and it explained how he had known to come down to YogLabs to save them, seemingly without having contacted Rythian, Zoey or Teep along the way. No wonder the station had been so successful, if Simon had been able to predict the best ideas ahead of time.

Kim felt so tired that she could just sleep forever, but she took a sip of the tea that Simon had poured and it send a calming warmth through her entire body. She knew that Simon and Lewis would want to talk to her before she could sleep. The idea of keeping her job was gone; after everything she’d done, she couldn’t imagine they’d be willing to keep her on, but she might be able to salvage a good recommendation from them if nothing else. She felt sad about the prospect of having to leave her dream job, but after all of this, she knew it all could have ended much worse.

“I have to say,” Simon said, sitting down his cup and saucer on the table. “I wasn’t expecting to find you down there. You’re supposed to be Mandrew, the funny editor who goes on to present YogNews and become one of our good content creators. I didn’t realise there was another side to you.”

Kim actually smiled. “You don’t see things one hundred percent then.”

“Well, I do need glasses,” Simon said, tapping the ones resting on his face. “Maybe the _inner eye_ needs glasses too. Or maybe it’s all just bullshit.”

“I guess you didn’t know about Hat Films then,” Kim said. “That’s good. I’d have been disappointed if you had just let them get away with everything.”

Simon’s face grew more serious. “I knew that they’d be trouble, but I didn’t know how serious it would be. All I knew is that they’d one day be the ones to let us back into YogLabs. I didn’t know how.” Simon took another sip of tea. “I know you’re tired, and I’m sorry. But could you tell me what’s been going on? Clearly things have been happening and I’ve missed every single one of them.”

So then, for the best part of an hour, Kim and Simon sat and drunk tea in the garden while she told him her story. He was a surprisingly good listener, encouraging her story and gasping at all the right points, and Kim found herself telling much more than she necessarily would have if she’d still been thinking about him as her boss. Telling her story, from the moment she’d arrived in Yogtowers until Lewis and Simon had found her in YogLabs, was oddly therapeutic. She felt months of tensions streaming out of her in every word. When she got to the part where Smiffy had attacked her, Simon clenched his cup so tight that he broke the handle and he had to go and get another one. When she told him that Hat Films were responsible for the disappearance of Sips, he smashed his second teacup on the floor, causing a nearby songbird to fly off in terror. But he didn’t allow his personal grief to get in the way of the story, and eventually she was done. She looked at him uncertainly, unsure exactly how he would react. After all, she had just admitted to him the murder of at least one person, even if they were a murderer themselves. But Simon just looked at her with sadness in his eyes and said:

“Kim, I’m so sorry that any of this happened to you under my watch.”

Unexpectedly, she gave him a smile then.

“Simon, I don’t blame you. But thanks. It means a lot.”

He smiled back, and for just a moment, Kim felt like they had bonded.

“I’d like to ask you a few questions,” she said, not really giving him a chance to object. “Duncan explained almost everything down in YogLabs, but there are still a few things I don’t understand.”

Simon nodded, and Kim began, “Duncan told me about the clones, how you made them all those years ago. Then today, all three of you absorbed the clones that were left. If you could do that all along, why didn’t you do it years ago?”

Simon blushed and actually looked quite ashamed of himself. “Fear, I guess. We were cowards. After Lalnable Hector’s escape, and the things he did to his clones… Lewis barely managed to seal him back in the first time and he told us if we wanted to set things right, we’d have to defeat him. Or, we could just seal him away forever and hope he never escaped. If we’d been brave, we would have gone after him then and there, but we were afraid that he would overpower us like he had the clones. You saw him, you must understand why we were afraid. Lewis suspected that we could reabsorb the clones, but he didn’t know for sure. We didn’t want to risk our lives for an uncertainty. That’s why we did what we did.”

Kim nodded. It wasn’t a noble answer, but she couldn’t say that she didn’t understand. If it wasn’t for the meddling of Hat Films and herself, then the plan to seal it away may well have worked. She was as much to blame for this as anyone else.

“What happened when you and Lewis absorbed them? Why did Lewis have those chains and where did they go?”

Simon gave a slight shrug, “I’m not sure about what happened to me. I guess they gave me the strength to carry Duncan out of there.”

“Duncan’s gave him the strength to beat Lalnable Hector,” Kim said. “So maybe yours gave you the power to save him.”

Simon nodded, “As for Lewis, well he’s had those chains for a while. He told me they are a kind of anomaly, like all the others you’ve seen here. You see, the anomalies are the result of unreality - well, this is what Lewis told me anyway - but they are all based on the real life in our world. You see the apparitions on the server level, because they emerge from the binary and the possibilities of the digital world, like CGI come to life. The studio level inspires performers because of the nature of the studio. Lewis had a lot of guilt about YogLabs in the years after the tragedy, and it only got worse as the stresses built up and Sips disappeared. He carried all those regrets with him for years, until one day I suppose they came real.”

“Maybe his clones gave him the strength to forgive himself.”

“Maybe.” Simon took another draught of his tea, draining his cup. “It’s all very serious,” he added, giving her a smile. “It’s not like me at all. But I suppose it needs to be dealt with, as Lewis would say.”

“So wait, there was one other thing,” Kim added. “Why did the earth start shaking? Why did Duncan collapse? Why did the clone’s death have such an effect on him?”

Simon just raised his arms in a shrug. “I’m sorry, I don’t know. I’m not Lewis, I don’t know about all of this science. All I know is that the clones are part of us, so when one of them dies it has weird implications for our own bodies and minds. As for the earth shaking… it might not even have been real, maybe it was all this unreality bollocks. That’s really Lewis’ area…”

Kim nodded, giving a slight shrug of her own. The science was beyond her too, but she understood the gist of what Simon was saying. She thought for a moment, but she couldn’t think of any more questions. It did seem like, finally, she had solved all of the mysteries of Yogtowers. Teep hadn’t been wrong, saying she was the one capable of sleuthing it all out. She just wished it hadn’t been so damn hard.

The lift doors opened, as if on cue, and Lewis stepped into the greenhouse. Exhausted as she was, Kim suddenly found herself on her feet, almost sending the teacups flying in her haste.

“Is it Duncan?” she asked, “Is he okay?”

Lewis held out his hands to calm her down as he approached. “Duncan will be fine, I promise you. I checked him over. He lost another part of himself and that takes its toll. I think he’ll sleep another three or four hours at the very least, then he’ll feel weak for a few days, but he’ll be okay. It might have been worse if he hadn’t just absorbed all the other clones. They gave him the strength to keep his heart beating.”

Kim gave a sigh of relief, sinking back down into her chair. She wouldn’t feel a hundred percent confident until she could speak to Duncan herself, but Lewis’ reassurance was something at least.

“I came here to talk to you about the marks on your arms,” Lewis said, indicating her hands and arms. Kim looked down at the sweeping purple spirals that wound from her hands to halfway up her upper arms. She hadn’t thought of them since she had gone with Duncan into the clone room in all the uproar and adrenaline.

“Do you know what it is?” she asked, “Can you remove the marks?”

Lewis pulled a slightly nervous face. “I’m afraid not. I’ve examined the substance and it’s one I’m completely unfamiliar with. I don’t believe it’s harmful, but it’s in your skin now. There no way I could remove it without leaving you with terrible scars. I’m sorry.”

Kim looked down at her arms in disbelief. She was stuck with this? Forever? She going to be disfigured? For some reason the only thought in her head was ‘My mum’s going to kill me for this’ and then she laughed so hard that she cried.

“It doesn’t look bad,” Simon offered. “It looks like a tattoo. I bet a lot of people would pay a lot of money for that.” He seemed to know his words were empty though, and he bore the same kind of worried look on his face that Lewis did.

“Kim, I’m sorry,” Lewis said. “I don’t know how you ended up down there, but you should never have been in that position. This is my fault. I’ll try to find a way to get rid of the marks and if I can’t then I’ll give you as much compensation as the company can afford.”

The word ‘compensation’ might have perked some people up, but Kim didn’t really care. Money was nice, but it didn’t change the fact that her body had been forever altered without her permission. The marks, tattoo, whatever you wanted to call it; they weren’t ugly with their delicate shimmery spirals, and Simon was probably right to say that some would pay a lot of money for a similar tattoo, but it was having her choice removed that Kim detested so much. Even still, she took a deep, calming breath.

“It’ll be okay,” she said. “It’ll be okay. It all could have been… much worse.”

“Kim has explained everything,” Simon told Lewis, “The Talent have died or disappeared, but not before they stabbed Zoey in the stomach.”

Lewis slapped his hand to his forehead, “Oh for god’s sake. Is she okay? I’ll need to make sure she’s getting good treatment, we’ll need to find her Simon, call around all the hospitals until you do. Now that Duncan’s under control, I need to take care of YogLabs. I’m going to strip it all out, anything that could be dangerous and I’m going to make sure it’s put beyond use. No more excuses, whatever is left of YogLabs needs to be destroyed.”

Simon quirked an eyebrow at him. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay with that? YogLabs was your legacy.”

Lewis nodded and then just gave a shrug. “Nothing lasts forever.”

He turned to walk away, obviously intent on getting on with everything right away, but then he quickly turned back to Kim.

“Kim,” he addressed her. “You can go see Duncan, I’ve left my level unlocked for you. When he’s awake, take him home and then both of you take the week off. In fact, take two weeks off, as long as you need. When you come back, I’ll see what I can do about the marks on your arms and we’ll talk about you taking over some of the free presenting slots.”

He went to stride off again, but this time Kim stopped him. “Wait! You mean, I’m not fired? You still want me to work here? You’re _promoting_ me?”

Lewis looked at her with an expression somewhere between a laugh and a look of total incredulity. “You know about _YogLabs_. Even if you weren’t as good a presenter as you are, I’d pay any amount to keep you here under my roof. As it is, my three best names have just gone missing and I’m going to need you to fill in for them. In fact I’m going to need to promote a whole bunch of minor talent, Sjin and Rythian and Martyn…. oh there’s just so much to do!” He did turn away this time, walking quickly towards the lift doors, but he called back over his shoulder. “I expect to see you back here after your vacation!”

Kim looked to Simon, who gave her a happy smile. “I told you,” he said. “You’re our Mandrew. You’re part of the family now. I always know.”

Kim buried her face in her hands, barely able to react to the news. The last day had been such a tumultuous ride of emotions that she didn’t know whether she wanted to cheer or bawl her eyes out.

“How do you feel about animal onesies?” Simon asked, “Say, a cat?”

So she laughed instead of crying or cheering, and then said, “No.”

“A penguin?”

“Not feeling it.”

“How about a sloth?”

“Hmm…”

“A corgie?”

“I’ll think about it,” Kim said, shaking her head with a smile.

She drained her tea and then went down in the lift to see Duncan. He lay on Lewis’ bed, as still and quiet as he had been when she had left him. Kim sat down at the bedside, and waited for him to wake up, wishing that she was able to go to sleep beside him. However, what she wanted most of all was a shower. She was dirty, sweaty, her clothes were stained with blood and the liquid preserve from the clone tanks, her face was white pale from tiredness and she generally looked like a nightmare. But she resolutely stayed sitting in the chair at his bedside, even though she found her eyes closing all by themselves as she dozed in and out of consciousness.

A faint rustle of the bedsheets snapped her eyes open and she looked over to see Duncan rubbing his face with the palm of his hand. Opening his eyes, he looked over at her with a beaming smile, seemingly as refreshed as if he’d just woken from a relaxing slumber.

“Hey there beautiful,” he said in his low early-morning growl, as though all the mud and grime in the world couldn’t make Kim anything other than perfect in his eyes. For a moment they just looked at each other in shared relief, and then Duncan added in a slightly surprised tone, “I guess we won.”

 

\---

 

When Kim arrived at the hospital a few days later, she found Zoey’s bedside already crowded. The nurse who directed her to the bed looked at her in surprise, adding, “ _Another_ visitor?”

Fiona was on one side of the bed, holding Zoey’s hand between both of hers, while on the other side of the bed Rythian sat with bags under his eyes like he hadn’t slept in all the time Zoey had been here. Ravs stood behind Rythian, but with his hand resting on Rythian’s shoulder. Teep stood at the end of the bed, picking through the large selection of ‘Get Well’ chocolates that Zoey couldn’t possibly had hoped to eat on her own. The surrounding tables were overflowing with cards, flowers and presents, no small amount of which had come from Kim herself. She owed Zoey big time.

“Kim!” Zoey said, with a beaming smile that bore no ill-will at all. “You came to visit!”

“Of course I did,” Kim said, “I brought you some food in case you didn’t like the hospital grub.” She returned Zoey’s smile, but it was partially a cover up for the guilt she felt inside. Kim knew that Zoey wouldn’t have been hurt if it hadn’t been for her. Hopefully she would learn a lesson from Lewis and forgive herself eventually, before it began to wear her down.

“Aw, thanks!” Zoey smiled.

She was propped up in the bed, her mid-section well-bandaged under her dressing gown. From the reports Kim had been receiving, it sounded like Zoey was well on the way to recovery although things had been touch and go for a while. Rythian had explained the whole story to her when Kim had arrived at the hospital initially, while Zoey was still under anesthesia from her surgery. Rythian had managed to carry Zoey to safety the way they’d come with Trott’s instructions and when they reached the server level they had found Teep fighting apparitions with Strife and Ridgedog. While Teep and Ridge had kept the apparitions distracted, Strife had called an ambulance. Rythian had ridden to the hospital with Zoey, who underwent surgery immediately on arrival to save her life.

“How’s Duncan?” Ravs asked Kim.

“He’s good,” Kim nodded. “Doing way better, actually. He’ll be up in a minute, he went to park the car.”

“You should both come with us!” Zoey said enthusiastically. “We were just talking about going on a trip somewhere, since Lewis gave us all time off.”

“I don’t think we should rush you anywhere,” Rythian said uneasily, ever the voice of caution.

“I’ll go wherever you want to go,” Fiona promised, only having eyes for Zoey. “Even if I have to take more time off, whatever you want.”

Kim didn’t realise Duncan had arrived until he slipped his arm around her waist and planted a kiss on the top of her head. Kim saw Zoey and Fiona exchange an amused look at that. She hadn’t explicitly told them all that her and Duncan were dating now, but their actions in the last few days didn’t exactly leave much doubt. Teep gave Duncan a wave, while Rythian gave him a nod. As much as Kim felt guilty for Zoey’s injury, she knew that Rythian felt just as guilty for abandoning Kim in YogLabs in order to save Zoey. Rythian felt like he owed Duncan a debt for saving Kim in the end and saving Rythian for feeling responsible for a much worse fate.

“Do you want to go a trip?” Zoey asked Duncan cheerfully. “I was thinking the seaside. The weather shouldn’t be too bad.”

“Yeah, sure!” Duncan grinned, “We could stay until night and build a big campfire.”

“I don’t know…” Rythian began, but then Zoey turned her big eyes on him.

“Oh come oooon, Rythian, let’s go! It’ll be fun.”

Ravs squeezed Rythian’s shoulder, who let out a sigh. “Fine, okay, we can go to the beach. But no swimming unless your wound is healed! And no swimming after eating, I think that’s bad for you too…”

They all burst out laughing, just at Rythian’s stereotypical worrywort nature. He looked a little sheepish for a moment, but then he joined in laughing, loud enough for one of the passing nurses to give them all a glare.

They stayed for the rest of visiting hour, telling stories and picking their way through Zoey’s vast selection of chocolates. They laughed at the reports of strange earthquakes in Bristol, which seemed to have shocked the entire geological community, and speculated where Chris Trott might have gone. He had slipped away from Zoey and Rythian after showing them the way out of YogLabs and none of them could think where he would go or what he passed to do next.

When it came time to go, Kim gave them all a warm smile and goodbye, knowing that she would be seeing all of them real soon. As Simon had said, they were all a family. Cheesy as it sounded, being accepted by them as part of that family was one of the greatest honours of her life.

She held hands with Duncan on their way back out to the car park. Duncan was driving for once and they made their way back to the city centre as the sun slowly dipped below the western horizon. They were almost home, when he suddenly suggested, “You know, we could go on a trip.”

“I thought we were going to the beach?” she asked.

“Yeah, yeah, we’ll do that too, but we have a couple of weeks. We could just take off around the world, anywhere, just you and me.”

“I don’t know,” Kim teased him. “Are you sure that you wouldn’t have more fun sitting in your pants playing World of Warcraft?”

“Hey, I’m not that big a nerd!” Duncan protested.

“Yes you are. And it’s okay, because that’s why I love you.”

Duncan glanced over at her with a smile that seemed to contain his whole heart. After a second he looked back to the road. “So what about Paris? They do call it the City of Love.”

“I could do Paris.”

“ _And_  we could go to Disneyland.”

“You’re such a dork,” Kim laughed. “You’re _my_ dork though.”

“Yeah, well then you’re mine,” Duncan said decisively, giving her hand a squeeze before reaching for the gear lever. Kim couldn’t hold back her huge smile and neither did she want to. She wanted all the world to know how wonderful he made her feel.

“Deal.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.


End file.
